Clinical outcomes for older adults with COVID-19 infection allocated to hospitals with distinct integrative and conventional care models in North-East Switzerland: A retrospective observational study

Introduction There is little data for integrative-medical in-patient treatment of acute infectious diseases compared to conventional treatment in acute care hospitals. Centralized allocation of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic provided a unique opportunity for comparison of two distinct medical approaches in two different hospitals. This study explores differences in the outcome of older patients with COVID-19 between two acute care hospitals in Switzerland with and without an integrative anthroposophic medical approach. Methods A retrospective observational study of patients aged 75 years or older hospitalized for a SARSCoV-2 infection between October 2020 and February 2021 was performed. Patients from two similar suburban communities in Switzerland were centrally allocated to two hospitals. A secondary care teaching hospital with 395 beds, providing conventional acute care (Hospital A (HA)) and a secondary care teaching hospital with 82 beds, which delivers integrative anthroposophic medicine (Hospital B (HB)). Data on baseline characteristics, treatment details, and mortality rates were extracted from medical records and analyzed. Descriptive statistics and exploratory analyses were performed. Results The study included 223 patients (123 at HA and 100 at HB). Baseline characteristics, including risk factors for severe COVID-19 disease were similar, except for minor differences in BMI and arterial hypertension. Length of hospitalization (median 8 days in HA and 9 days in HB) and mortality rates (In-hospital mortality 26.8% HA;17.0% HB; p=0.112) were not different between the hospitals. Patients at Hospital A received more antibiotics (61.8% vs. 40.0%; p