Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Ophthalmic Outpatient Care At The Ophthalmology Department Of The New St. John'S Hospital, Budapest

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic put the healthcare network in a hitherto unknown situation. The ophthalmic outpatient care changed internationally.Objective: To assess the quantitative and qualitative changes of the outpatient specialty care at the Ophthalmology Department of the North-Central-Buda Center, New St. John's Hospital and Clinic, through the pandemic.Method: Outpatient service data during the first wave of the pandemic (April 2020) were compared with those in April 2019. Patient demographics, emergency classification, distribution of the main diagnostic groups (associated with complaints) and services provided via telemedicine were collected.Results: There were 2835 patient visits in 2019 and 916 in 2020. For 2020, the proportion of patients with emergency classification according to legal regulations did not change (p = 0.38), however, using the ophthalmologist's classification increased (p<0.001) significantly. The proportion of patients with glaucoma, conjunctivitis, chalazeon, injury and wet macular degeneration increased (p<0.001 all), while the proportion of patients with cataract, dry macular degeneration, other diseases, other adnexal diseases, secondary cataract and without ophthalmic pathology decreased significantly (p<0.001 for all). Patient number using telemedicine treatment was about 15x of those treated in 2019 (p<0.001).Conclusion: During the first wave of the pandemic, a marked decrease in ophthalmic outpatient care volume was recorded. In the case of several main diagnosis groups, significant therapy loss and a delayed need for care could be expected. Evaluation of the data helps in the upcoming years in proactive reorganization of the care process, in better planning of human resource needs, and in improvement of teleophthalmology care.