Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on a Health Care System: Case Study of the CirculatORy System in LiThuania

"Outpatient data from 1 January to 30 November of the analysed year were obtained from National Health Insurance Fund under the Ministry of Health.~Outpatient data related to cardiovascular diseases (CVD) were collected as described:~1. data on visits were collected using ICD-10 codes I00-I99 and other CVD related codes (e.g., certain Z, Q codes, J81.0, R57.0)~2. data were collected from CVD prevention program~3. data on interventional cardiology were collected from day care facility regardless of the diagnosis.~Date of the visit, patient age, sex and municipality, service level (primary, secondary or tertiary), type of service and main diagnosis were recorded."

"Hospitalisation data from 1 January to 30 November of the analysed year were obtained from National Health Insurance Fund under the Ministry of Health.~Data on hospitalisation were collected if any of the diagnoses (principal or secondary) were in I00-I99 range. Hospitalisation data covered hospitalisation date, patient age, sex, municipality and outcome. Data on cardiovascular procedures performed during hospitalisations included date of the procedure and ACHI (Australian Classification of Health Interventions) code."

Data on cardiovascular mortality were obtained from death certificates provided by Causes of Death Registry from Institute of Hygiene and covered the period from 1 January to 31 December of the analysed year. Death certificates were included in the study when cause of death was adjudicated to be in I00-I99 range. Date and place of death (hospital, home, other or unspecified), patient age and sex were recorded.

Demographic, clinical and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) related data were collected from 1st March to 30th June of the analysed year. The timing of the chest pain onset, call for medical help, first medical contact (FMC), arrival to PCI centre, and PCI procedure were analysed.