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Abstract Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic is a global public health problem. The Covid-19 pandemic has had a substantial impact on the economy of developing countries, including Ethiopia.This study aimed to determine the hospitalisation costs of Covid-19 and the factors associated with the high cost of hospitalisation in South Central Ethiopia. Methods A retrospective cost analysis of Covid-19 patients hospitalised between July 2020 and July 2021 at Bokoji Hospital Covid-19 Treatment Centre was conducted using both the micro-costing and top-down approaches from the health system perspective. This analysis used cost data obtained from administrative reports, the financial reports of the treatment centre, procurement invoices and the Covid-19 standard treatment guidelines. The Student’s t-test, Mann-Whitney U test or Kruskal-Wallis test was employed to test the difference between sociodemographic and clinical factors when appropriate.To identify the determinants of cost drivers in the study population, a generalised linear model with gamma distribution and log link with a stepwise algorithm were used. Results A total of 692 Covid-19 patients were included in the costing analysis. In this study, the mean cost of Covid-19–infected patients with no symptoms was US$1,073.86, with mild symptoms US$1,100.74, with moderate symptoms US$1,394.74 and in severe–critically ill condition US$1,708.05.The overall mean cost was US$1,382.50(95% CI: 1,360.60–1,404.40) per treated episode.The highest mean cost was observed for personnel, accounting for 64.0% of the overall cost. Older age, pre-existing diseases, advanced disease severity at admission, admission to the intensive care unit, prolonged stay on treatment and intranasal oxygen support were strongly associated with higher costs. Conclusions This study found that the clinical management of Covid-19 patients incurred significant expenses to the health system. Factors such as older age, disease severity, presence of comorbidities, use of inhalation oxygen therapy and prolonged hospital stay were associated with higher hospitalisation costs.Therefore, the government should give priority to the elderly and those with comorbidities in the provision of vaccination to reduce the financial burden on health facilities and health systems in terms of resource utilisation.

Trauma is a serious public health problem, and abdominal injuries are among the leading causes of hospitalization after trauma. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the outcome of abdominal trauma and its predictors in patients who underwent laparotomy at Asella Referral and Teaching Hospital (ARTH), South Central Ethiopia. We conducted a retrospective institutional based cross-sectional study of patients who underwent laparotomy for abdominal trauma at ARTH from October 1, 2015, to September 30, 2020. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were used to determine associations between independent factors and mortality due to abdominal trauma, and a P value of 6 hours from trauma to admission (95% CI: AOR: 5.44, 1.78–16.63), unstable intraoperative patient condition (95% CI: AOR = 8.82, 3.05–25.52), and patients who need blood transfusion (95% CI: AOR: 6.63, 1.92–22.91) were significantly associated with mortality. The mortality rate of abdominal trauma patients who underwent laparotomy was high. Therefore, healthcare providers should provide priority for traumatic patients as prolonged waiting time to get healthcare results in poor outcomes for the patients.

Abstract Background Covid-19 causes a wide range of symptoms in patients, ranging from mild manifestations to severe disease and death. This study assessed the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and associated factors of Covid-19 patients using primary data from confirmed cases in South Central Ethiopia. Methods We employed a facility-based, cross-sectional study design and conducted the study at the Bokoji Hospital Covid-19 treatment centre. A structured questionnaire and the EQ-5D-3L scale were used to collect the data for analysis. The HRQOL results measured by the EQ-5D-3L tool were converted to a health state utility (HSU) using the Zimbabwe tariff. The average health utility index and HSU–visual analogue scale across diverse sociodemographic and clinical characteristics were compared using the Mann–Whitney U test or Kruskal–Wallis test. We employed a multiple linear regression to examine factors associated with HSU values simultaneously. The data were analysed using STATA version 15. Results The overall mean HSU score from the EQ-5D was 0.688 (SD: 0.285), and the median was 0.787 (IQR 0.596, 0.833). The mean HSU from the visual analogue scale score was 0.69 (SD: 0.129), with a median of 0.70 (IQR 0.60, 0.80). Those who received dexamethasone and intranasal oxygen supplement, those with comorbidity, those older than 55 years and those with a hospital stay of more than 15 days had significantly lower HSU scores than their counterparts (p

Coronavirus outbreak was a public health emergency. The surge of new confirmed cases and deaths was observed in developing countries due to the occurrence of new variants. However, factors associated with the duration of recovery among admitted patients remained uncertain. Therefore, we assessed factors associated with time to recovery from Covid-19 among hospitalized patients at the treatment center in South Central, Ethiopia. We employed a retrospective cross-sectional study among 422 patients hospitalized at Bokoji Hospital treatment center with Covid-19 from July 1, 2020, through October 30, 2021. Data were entered, coded, and analyzed using SPSS 26 version. We computed the survival probability using the Kaplan Meier method and determined factors associated with time to recovery using Cox regression analysis. Finally, the interpretation of adjusted hazard ratio (AHR) with 95% Confidence Interval (CI) and P-values less than 0.05 were declared as statistically significant. Our study found that the median time to recovery from Covid-19 infection of 13 days, with an IQR of 9–17 days. In multivariate Cox regression, ≥ 60 years old (AHR = 0.66; 95% CI: 0.49, 0.895), chronic pulmonary disease (AHR = 0.67; 95% CI: 0.455, 0.978), Male (AHR = 0.77; 95% CI: 0.611, 0.979), and being on Intranasal oxygen care (AHR = 0.56; 95% CI: 0.427–0.717) were significantly associated with time to recovery. Thus, health providers in treatment centers should give strict follow-up and priority for elders, patients with underlying diseases, and under supportive treatment during case management.

Background COVID-19 is a global public health problem causing high mortality worldwide. This study aimed to assess time to death and predictors of mortality among patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in the Arsi zone treatment center. Method We performed a retrospective observational cohort study using medical records of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases hospitalized at Bokoji Hospital COVID-19 treatment center from 1st July 2020 to 5th March 2021. We extracted data on the patients’ sociodemographic and clinical characteristics from medical records of hospitalized patients retrospectively. We carried out Kaplan Meier and Cox regression analysis to estimate survival probability and investigate predictors of COVID-19 death 5% level of significance. The Adjusted Hazard Ratio (aHR) with 95% Confidence Interval (CI) was estimated and interpreted for predictors of time to death in the final cox model. Result A total of 422 COVID-19 patients treated were analyzed, of these more than one tenth (11.14%) deaths, with a mortality rate of 6.35 cases per 1000 person-days. The majority (87.2%) of deaths occurred within the first 14 days of admission, with a median time-to-death of nine (IQR: 8–12) days. We found patients that age between 31 and 45 years (aHR = 2.55; 95% CI: (1.03, 6.34), older than 46 years (aHR = 2.59 (1.27, 5.30), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (aHR = 4.60, 95%CI: (2.37, 8.91), Chronic kidney disease (aHR = 5.58, 95%CI: (1.70, 18.37), HIV/AIDS (aHR = 3.66, 95%CI: (1.20, 11.10), admission to the Intensive care unit(aHR = 7.44, 95%CI: (1.82, 30.42), and being on intranasal oxygen care (aHR = 6.27, 95%CI: (2.75, 4.30) were independent risk factors increasing risk of death from COVID-19 disease than their counterparts. Conclusion The risk of dying due to COVID-19 disease was higher among patients with HIV/AIDS, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and chronic kidney diseases. We also found that older people, those admitted to ICU, and patients who received intranasal oxygen care had a higher risk of dying due to COVID-19 disease. Therefore, close monitoring hospitalized patients that are old aged and those with comorbidities after hospitalization is crucial within the first ten days of admission.