Analysis of the Impacts of COVID-19 on the Activities of Orthopedic Surgery

In the last few years, the world has been affected by the effects of the spread of the COVID-19 virus, defined as a global pandemic at the end of January 2020, resulting in a transformation of health care and inherent patient care processes. The main issues that have emerged are related not only to managerial management but also to the treatment and management of patient care. In this paper, we analyze the processes and services of the Department of Orthopedics in "A.O.R.N. A. Cardarelli" of Naples (Italy), comparing the hospitalization activities about 1832 subjects over 2019 (pre-pandemic) and 2020 (during the pandemic) years. In particular, the aim of this analysis is to investigate how COVID-19 pandemic affects the performance and quality of services of this department, also discussing the related possible difficulties. For this aim, we design a Logistic Regression model for correlating the Length of Stay (LOS) with several dependent variables. The results show that in 2020 there was a decrease in the number of patients admitted to the ward, and the statistical analysis highlighted the main variables that have undergone the change: discharge mode and hospitalization procedures.