Covid-19 mortality in Bulgarian hospitals at 18.3% in 2021

The Covid-19 mortality rate in Bulgarian hospitals was 18.3% last year, according to the Hospitals Index analysis based on reports that hospitals submit into the electronic information system of the Health Ministry.

There were 155,422 hospitalised COVID patients in 215 hospitals last year, and 28,379 of them passed away, the data shows. ICU patients totalled 16,033, which accounts for 10.31% of the patients diagnosed with coronavirus.

Although the average mortality rate was 18.3%, it varied widely from hospital to hospital: from 0 to 35 per cent. This was due to different profile of the hospitals: those with high mortality were hospitals with dedicated Covid-19 wards and those with low mortality specialise in treating various other health conditions and reported Sars-Cov-2 as co-morbidity.

Differences in mortality, however were also observed in the relevant medical establishments, both in their type and in the volume of COVID-19 cases. In these cases, the differences were due to the condition and severity of the disease in the patients, as well as to the protocols of work and the possibilities for treatment of the individual structures.

Among the top 20 hospitals for treatment of Covid-19, the mortality rate ranged from 13 to 33%. It was lowest in the Military Medical Academy and highest in the Pirogov Emergency Hospital, both of them in Sofia.

In the other 20 medical institutions, according to the volume of admitted patients, which ranges from 1748 people to 1254, the mortality rate varies from 6 to 35, being the lowest in the infectious diseases hospital "Prof. Iv. Kirov ”in Sofia, and was the highest in ISUL hospital, again in the capital. All this raises again the question of the need to introduce a single protocol of work.

Compared to last year

Covid-19 hospital mortality has risen, the data show. In 2020 it was 11%, while in 2021 it reached 18%. The reasons for this are again many. The main one is that the pandemic in Bulgaria broke out mainly last year. The first serious wave in 2020 in the country was registered only in the late autumn of the year, while last year there were more waves. This is confirmed by the number of hospitalised patients - in 2020 they were 62,299, compared to 155,422 in 2021.

The top ten hospitals for Covid-19 patients are state-owned.

In the previous year, one of them was private - Tokuda, but in 2021, there were fewer patients with Covid19 in it. The change is a consequence of the government policy, including the caretaker cabinet, to put the country's largest public hospitals on the frontline in the battle with Covid-19, the analysts say.

Compared to other countries

mortality from Covid-19 in hospitals in Bulgaria is comparable to that in other countries. For example, a study published in The Lancet medical journal shows that of the 86,356 hospitalized patients with KOVID-19 in the UK between March and July 2020, 22,944 or 26.6% died.

Another study on hospital mortality in the United States found that among the 503,409 patients in 209 wards treated between March 1 and November 21, 2020, mortality ranged from 9.3 to 19.7 % in the different months.

"Hospital Index" is a joint initiative of "Gallup International Balkan" and the specialised site clinica.bg Its aim is to give more transparency to the activities of medical institutions in some socially significant diagnoses. This increases the possibilities for making better informed choices for treatment of patients and focuses the attention of specialists to achieve better results in the performance of medical activities.

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