Is it safe to go to hospitals during the pandemic?




Park, a high school student living in a small town in a rural area, tried to go to an emergency room due to his high fever of 41 degrees Celsius. But the hospital refused to let him in, instead suspecting that he had COVID-19, and instructed him to go to a bigger hospital. His parents then had to drive more than three hours to the emergency center of a university hospital in Seoul. He was admitted after being tested negative for the coronavirus disease, but he died thereafter of aggravated pneumonia.

Amid the pandemic, the lives of some patients of illnesses other than the COVID-19 are being exposed to greater risks ― or even lost ― as hospitals fail to provide them with the proper timely treatment. In many other cases, the patients themselves are reluctant to go to hospitals.

According to research submitted to the Journal of Korean Medical Science by Prof. Kang Soo at Inha University Hospital in Incheon, the number of patients who went to the emergency room dropped significantly during the first wave of the pandemic last year compared with the same period in 2018 and 2019. The figure was 401,378 for 2020, compared to 577,548 in 2018 and 598,514 in 2019. While fewer people went to the emergency room, the death rate of patients suffering from heart attacks was over 6 percent in 2020, significantly higher than the average death rate of 4.03 percent in 2018 and 2019.

The number of total patients at hospitals and clinics nationwide also dropped by around 10 percent last year compared to 2019, according to big data statistics compiled by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service.

While people are shunning hospitals due to fear of infection, doctors say that patients can still safely get medical service at government-designated emergency centers or at the hospitals that offer separate services for those who are not infected with COVID-19.

"To offer safe and rapid emergency treatment, we preemptively separate patients in groups to determine the severity, as well as whether they are infected with COVID-19. The emergency patients who are confirmed to have COVID-19 or who have a fever and respiratory symptoms are examined in a segregated area, so as not to hamper other emergency patients from getting proper treatment," said Prof. Kim Chan-woong at Chung-Ang University Hospital.

"Before going to the emergency room, you can call 119 and give information on the condition and symptoms of the patient. Then you can confirm in real time which emergency center suits the patient and can offer the appropriate medical services. You can also get information about the government-designated emergency center that will serve the patient, even if they have symptoms of COVID-19," he added.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Study Finds that Media Multitasking Impairs Memory in Young Adults

Image
  Engaging with multiple types of digital media simultaneously, known as media multitasking, has become the norm for many people due to the increasingly easier access to technology. However, a recent study found that media multitasking greatly decreases the ability of sustaining attention, consequently impairing memory.  In the modern era, the average smartphone-carrying human is constantly bombarded with a deluge of information in the form of social media, messages, and other distractions. Humans crave the gratification they receive from continually checking their phone while simultaneously watching TV and Skyping with a friend, priding themselves in their multitasking ability. However, the bulky, modern brain has remained relatively unchanged compared to hundreds of thousands of years ago; that is, it has inherently been fine tuned to only focus on one task at a time. But as we continue to pummel our brain with multiple types of digital information, it becomes apparent to sc...
Read more

Number of children with myopia increasing steeply

Image
  The number of children experiencing myopia, or nearsightedness, is increasing steeply in Korea, where the majority of the population already experience vision problems. Doctors say that it seems to be related to the rise of online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a survey at Kim's Eye Hospital, 74.9 percent of the young patients below the age of 15, who visited the clinic during the one-year period between April 2020 and March 2021, were myopia patients. That figure is up 6.6 percentage points from the figure for the same period a year ago. April 2020 was when schools across the country started offering online classes due to the pandemic. Doctors say that it can be assumed that the increase in young myopia patients is related to the rise of online classes, involving more frequent use of digital display devices. "After the implementation of online classes, the number of children visiting the clinic due to myopia increased. Though we would not jump to the con...
Read more