Chapter 5 108 2.6 Analysis Baseline characteristics Patient characteristics were described using counts and percentages for categorical variables and median with IQR for continuous variables. Code status We used descriptive statistics using counts and percentages. First, we described how many patients in both cohorts had a code status documented on admission. Within the documented code status, we compared whether these were discussed with patients and/or family or not, and the proportion of any treatment limitation as opposed to full code. Lastly, we described which treatment limitations were documented in case any treatment limitation was in place. As a COVID-19 infection often presents as respiratory infection, we hypothesized this could influence the types of treatment limitations. Therefore, we also described types of treatment limitations in only patients admitted with respiratory infections from the before COVID-19 cohort. Since the two existing cohorts are essentially different, no additional statistical analysis was performed. 3. Results The COVPACH cohort consisted of 190 patients. Sixty-one patients were transferred from the ICU of another hospital to the ICU of our hospital, and therefore, excluded from our analysis. The SPACE cohort consisted of 3178 patient-visits at the ED, 2056 of which were followed by an admission. A total of 470 of these were recurrent visits/admissions and therefore excluded from our analysis. This resulted in a total of 1715 patients included for analysis, 129 patients from the COVID-19 (COVPACH) cohort and 1586 patients from the before COVID-19 (SPACE) cohort. 3.1 Patient characteristics Table 1 shows the patient characteristics in both groups. 3.2 Code status documentation and discussion In 90 out of 129 patients (69.8%) in the COVID-19 cohort and in 1153 out of 1586 patients (72.7%) in the before COVID-19 cohort, a code status was documented. These documented code status were discussed in 75.6% (68/90) of the COVID-19 cohort and 73.3% (845/1153) of the before COVID-19 cohort.
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