Analysis of selected factors influencing mortality of patients with COVID-19 treated in a community hospital in a rural region of Poland

Background: Factors influencing mortality in patients with COVID-19 treated in the community hospital during the first and the second wave of pandemic were analyzed.
Methods: A retrospective observational study based on a hospital-based registry of Holy Spirit Specialist Hospital in Sandomierz was conducted. The study population consisted of patients treated between 01 March 2020 and 31 May 2021.
Results: We analyzed data of 24,057 patients including 978 patients with COVID-19. During both waves of COVID-19 pandemic 22.4% patients hospitalized in community hospital in Sandomierz died. The multivariate logistic regression model showed that older age (p<0.001), fever (p<0.001), diagnosis of sepsis (p<0.001) and high level of C-reactive proteins (p=0.041) were factors related to mortality. The group of patients in whom  oxygen therapy (p<0.001) and invasive mechanical ventilation (p<0.001) were used more frequently, mortality was higher, whereas, treatment with convalescent plasma increased the chance of survival (p<0.001).
Conclusion: Fever and high laboratory values of inflammation, in particular coexisting sepsis, worsened the prognosis in patients with COVID-19. Most traditional methods of treating the infection did not affect the course of the disease.
Keywords: community hospital, COVID-19, factor increasing mortality, rural region.