Comparison of patients’ findings and examination results
The mean O2 saturation at the admission was 83.9±9.2, with a mean of 85.4±8.5 and 82.5±9.8 at Hospital B and Hospital A, respectively. Regarding the radiological findings, bilateral infiltrates were present in 29% of the included patients at admission, with a prevalence of 26% at Hospital B and 32% in Hospital A (Table 4) .
The local chest examination findings were variable among patients. Breathing rhythm was regular in 58% of the patients, irregular in 13% of the patients, and the data about the remaining 29% were not documented. For the breathing depth, 53% of the patients showed a normal depth of respiration, 10% showed shallow breathing, 7% showed deep breathing, and 30% did have a documented breathing depth. For the breathing quality, 57.9% of the patients showed a normal breathing quality, 10% showed labored breathing, and the remaining 32% did have a documented breathing depth. In the same context, 65% of the included patients did not have any added sounds; however, there was a high variability of the breathing added sounds among the remaining ones. Bilateral crepitations were found in 17% of the patients, 8% had wheezes, 7% had bilateral crackles, 3% had rhonchi, and 1% had scattered crepitations. There was a statistically significant difference among the two hospitals in the patterns of breathing rhythm (P -value= 0.017), breathing quality (P -value= 0.029), and added sounds (P -value= 0.029) among the included patients