The urological practice and contribution to the general health system of the EBU accredited urology clinic during the first month of COVID-19 pandemic: An analysis from a tertiary center declared as a national COVID-19 pandemic hospital in Turkey.

Temiz, Mustafa Zafer; Yürük, Emrah; Kandıralı, Engin; Semerciöz, Atilla; Müslümanoğlu, Ahmet Yaser

OBJECTIVE This study aims to evaluate the overall healthcare performance of our re-organized urology clinic during the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey. MATERIAL AND METHODS A retrospective review of our department data was conducted between March 20, 2020, and April 16, 2020. All consecutive patients who received healthcare in both urology and emergency COVID-19 clinics by urologists during this period were included. We classified our healthcare into 4 categories: 1) Standard urological outpatient clinic procedures, 2) Urological emergency procedures, 3) Standard inpatient treatment clinic procedures and specific inpatient treatment clinic procedures for COVID-19 suspected cases, and 4) Specific emergency clinic procedures for COVID-19. Epidemiologic data and patient characteristics were analyzed using independent t test and chi-square test. RESULTS Overall, the data of 990 patients were evaluated. Of these patients, 344 were seen in standard urology outpatient clinic and 212 were transferred from COVID-19 emergency clinic and hospitalized because of suspected COVID-19 infection. In the COVID-19 emergency clinic, 361 patients were seen by urologists in different shifts. Our workload was on behalf of COVID-19 cases. In our COVID-19 experience, there were no statistically significant differences between our suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients in terms of mean age, sex and age periods (p=0.30, p=0.77, and p=0.78, respectively). CONCLUSION We successfully contributed to the national COVID-19 management program. In our opinion, each department should create a customized action plan instead of a standardized approach during the COVID-19 pandemic or potential public emergencies in the future.