From the November 2020 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
In a year that was defined by COVID-19, it isn’t surprising that, from January through September, CT scans dropped by 19% compared to the previous year, according to analysis in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

States on average reached a bottoming out point about 32 days into their emergency declaration and 12 days after stay-at-home orders were implemented. The average low point at that stage was a roughly 53% decline in CT volume.

A decline of 38,000 CT scans was seen on an average day during the worst parts of the crisis, with the largest drops seen in areas with higher dense populations and greater unemployment rates. CT visits were at about 84% of expected volume by September 30, indicating a “blunted recovery,” and that since CT volume never recovered to the levels predicted for it, a substantial proportion of care was not just deferred but not provided at all, according to lead author Dr. Matthew Davenport.
"It is likely that delayed and deferred care has had negative health implications for disease states unrelated to COVID-19," Davenport, who is service chief of Radiology and associate chair of operations at Michigan Medicine, told HCB News. "We do not yet have a complete picture of what those negative effects are, and we don't know whether those negative effects were outweighed by the positive effects of avoiding disease spread in the early months of the pandemic. Examples include delayed diagnosis and treatment of cancer."

The group analyzed data from 2,398 hospitals, academic facilities and freestanding imaging practices combined and scattered across all 50 states. They chalk the decline up to four factors: safety concerns, social distancing policies, staff reductions and the loss of health insurance by prospective patients.

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