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

Introduction: Factors influencing mortality in patients with COVID-19 treated in a community hospital in a rural region in south-eastern Poland during the first and the second wave of the 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 1 March 2020 and 31 May 2021.

Results: We analyzed data of 24 057 Caucasian patients including 798 patients with COVID-19. During both waves of the COVID-19 pandemic 22.4% of patients hospitalized in the community hospital in Sandomierz died due to COVID-19. The multivariate logistic regression model showed that older age (p<0.001), fever (p<0.001), diagnosis of sepsis (p<0.001) and high levels of C-reactive protein (p=0.041) were factors related to mortality. In 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.