The Decrease in Regular and Emergency Visits to Urology Clinics During COVID-19 Pandemic: An Observational StudyThe Decrease in Regular and Emergency Visits to Urology Clinics During COVID-19 Pandemic: An Observational Study

Aim: In this pre-and post- study, we aimed to compare changes in urological consultations and emergencies
between before and after the pandemic at the same time period o f 2019 and 2020 as two groups.
Patients and Methods: Patient files were retrospectively screened and numbers of consultations, surgeries
and admissions were evaluated. The two groups compared in terms of triage color codes, and final decisions.
Patients’ demographic data such as age and gender, triage color code, consultation order clinic, type of visit
(regular vs control), and operational data (type of surgery, prophylaxis status, place of OR etc) were recorded.
Results: A total of 89,674 patients presented to the emergency department in the 50-day period in 2019 and
53,745 patients in the same period of time in 2020. The number of patients presenting to the emergency
department decreased by 40.07% within the same period compared to the previous year. The percentage of
patients with the green triage code was decreased in 2020 by 30% compared to 2019, while the percentage
of yellow triage code was increased in 2020 by 28.9% compared to 2019. There was a dramatic fall in urology
visits in 2020 by 85.91%.
Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic is still ongoing, and it seems likely to continue for some time, despite
all efforts including vaccination programs and novel drugs that will also become available in a short time. The
number of patients cosulted with urology outpatient clinic has decreased during the pandemic.