People who had recently been in the hospital were 24 times less likely to develop a COVID-19 infection than the general population, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) researchers found in a study that used data from 45 hospitals.
The study focused on people who had been in the hospital for conditions not related to COVID-19. Among the 101,533 patients, only 44 (0.043%) tested positive for COVID-19 within 14 days of discharge from the hospital. By comparison, the percentage of positive COVID-19 patients among the total U.S. population is 1.035%.
Krishna Nalleballe, MD, is the lead author on the study and stroke neurologist and assistant professor in the Department of Neurology in the UAMS College of Medicine. He said hospitals across the nation have reported fewer people visiting the hospital and emergency rooms, even for illnesses like strokes and heart attacks where life-saving care is time-sensitive.
“We suspect these trends are related to patient fears about contracting COVID-19 while in the hospital, so we wanted to take a closer look,” Nalleballe said. “The results, which suggest low rates of infection, should be reassuring and encourage patients to seek timely treatment of healthcare problems during the COVID-19 pandemic to avoid unnecessary complications and impacts on quality of life.”
Many hospitals, including UAMS, have enacted targeted policies to reduce the spread of COVID-19, including personal protective equipment for medical staff, universal masking for staff and patients, limiting or restricting visitors, and heightened cleaning protocols and ventilation standards.
“These results suggest that such precautionary measures are working and creating an environment of relatively low risk in the hospital setting,” Nalleballe said.