Changes in orthopedic services in two indonesian tertiary-referral hospitals during the coronavirus-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND: Many countries report decreasing on the number of hospital visit even on the emergency cases. AIM: This study aims to reveal the important data on how big the impact of coronavirus-19 pandemic on orthopedic services in two Government’s tertiary-referral hospitals. METHODS: This research is a comparison study to measure the trend of orthopedic services, the monthly orthopedic surgical load and outpatient visit were examined during the period of March to May 2020 (the early pandemic period) then compared to the same period in the 2019. RESULTS: The lowest number of outpatient visits occurred during May 2020 with 715 total number of outpatient visit. The lowest number of orthopedic surgery occurred during May 2020 with 167 total number of orthopedic surgery. Significant decrease of outpatient visits is recorded in 3 months of early pandemic period compared to the same period in 2019 (p < 0.005). Regarding the orthopedic surgical loads, the data show significant decrease in number of orthopedic surgeries in early pandemic period compared to those months in 2019 (p < 0.005). The largest declines were in visits for post-operative control patient (–179), spinal problem (–127,33), and osteoarthritis (–91,33). CONCLUSION: There was a significant difference in outpatient visit and orthopedic surgery number in the early pandemic period compared to the period before the pandemic occur. The largest drops in outpatient visit were in visits for post–operative control patient and spinal problem.