Abstract

Background: COVID-19 pandemic hit the world in 2019 and its successive waves have created high alerts periodically across many nations including India. At the time of successive waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the key concerns among developing nations was to manage the patient burden in hospitals with limited available infrastructure.
Objective: In the present study we have analysed the role of common laboratory markers as a predictor of hospital stay in COVID-19-positive patients so that hospital resources can be managed efficiently.
Methods: We studied the data of 200 COVID-19-positive patients for TLC, LDH, D-dimer, and serum ferritin and analysed their correlation with hospital stay
Results: TLC and LDH exhibit a positive correlation with hospital stay whereas D-dimer and serum ferritin showed a negative correlation with hospital stay among COVID-19 patients. Patients with a negative CRP showed a longer duration of hospital stay with a median stay of 9 days.
Conclusion: Being a developing nation, healthcare centres in India have limited resources. In such a scenario, common laboratory markers can prove to be a promising tool in managing hospital resources by estimating the hospital stay of patients.