Introduction

During the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals had to made enormous efforts to reorganise medical assistance.

Aim of the research

The assessment of the activities of an entire rural hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Material and methods

The number of hospitalisations in the individual departments, length of stay, the numbers of the major surgeries, reperfusion procedures, number of births, and in-hospital deaths in the periods between 1 March 2018 and 31 May 2019 (n = 24,437) and between 1 March 2020 and 31 May 2021 (n = 20,686) were compared.

Results

In the analysed pandemic period there were 798 patients with a SARS-CoV-2 infection, and 179 (22.4%) of them died. In the univariate analysis during the pandemic compared to the period before pandemic, the significant decrease in the number of hospitalisations both in operating (p < 0.001) and in conservative departments (p < 0.001) were recorded; however, these numbers varied from department to department, and the average length of hospital stay was statistically significantly shorter (p < 0.001). The multivariate analysis showed that in most departments there was a decrease of the number of hospitalised patients, except for the internal medicine (p < 0.001), neurosurgery (p < 0.001), neonatology (p < 0.001), and urology (p < 0.001) departments. The shorter hospital stay was also found in almost all departments, unlike the cardiology (p < 0.001) and daytime rehabilitation (p < 0.001) departments. Higher numbers of deaths in the cardiology (p < 0.001) and palliative care (p < 0.001) departments were reported.

Conclusions

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a reduction in the number of patients in hospital and shorter stays in most hospital departments.