ABSTRACT
Background: Hospital capacity management has been one of the main public health problems in many countries during the COVID-19 outbreak. Field hospitals were developed as a means of taking care of patients with limited resource utilization. Objective: To demonstrate clinical presentations and treatment outcomes of patients infected with COVID-19 treated at a field hospital. Additionally, cost and utilization were also evaluated. Materials and Methods: The present study was a retrospective study. Data from the medical records of the patients diagnosed with COVID-19 admitted and discharged from a field hospital between April 2021 and June 2021 were reviewed. Clinical presentation, treatment outcomes, cost, and utilization were analyzed, classified by disease severity. Results: Seventy-two patients with a mean age (SD) of 30.2 (8.4) years were enrolled in the present study. Thirty-six patients (50.0%) were asymptomatic. Nasal congestion was the most common symptom of COVID-19 (30.6%). Patients with mild pneumonia had higher body mass index (BMI) and older age than asymptomatic cases, and symptomatic COVID-19 cases without pneumonia (p=0.014, 0.028, respectively). The two common final diagnoses were acute pharyngitis (27.8%) and pneumonia (26.4%). Asymptomatic pneumonia was found in 5.6%. The mortality rate was 0% in the field hospital. The average length of stay was 12 days, and the mean total cost of treatment was 48,396 THB per patient. The patients with mild pneumonia had significant higher total cost of treatment than asymptomatic cases and symptomatic COVID-19 cases without pneumonia. Conclusion: Field hospitals could be the most efficient option for taking care of COVID-19 patients when healthcare resources in hospital are limited. COVID-19 patients’ triage was important to determine the outcomes. Asymptomatic cases, symptomatic cases without pneumonia, and cases with mild pneumonia could be treated in a field hospital with cost-effective outcomes. © 2022 JOURNAL OF THE MEDICAL ASSOCIATION OF THAILAND.
ABSTRACT
Objective: Health care costs (HCCs) are a significant concern in developing countries. The authors investigated the healthcare resource utilization (HCRU) and HCCs for patients with COVID-19 based on disease severity and infection site. Materials and Methods: The authors reviewed data from the electronic medical records of COVID-19 patients admitted to the present study hospital between January 2020 and April 2020. The authors used comorbidities and patient characteristics as covariates. Analyses were conducted using simple linear regression and generalized linear regression models with a log-link and gamma distribution. Results: Two hundred two patients had confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. Total costs per patient were 6,626 USD (756 to 45,586). Personal protection equipment costs were the most significant cost for COVID-19 patients with a mean of 3,778 USD. The mean treatment cost per patient was 326 USD. Patients with severe symptoms and lower respiratory tract infection (LRI) had a higher cost and resource utilization value before and after adjusting for covariates. Conclusion: COVID-19 patients with severe symptoms and LRI had higher HCRU. Length of stay, severity of symptoms, and LRI were associated with higher cost of treatment. © JOURNAL OF THE MEDICAL ASSOCIATION OF THAILAND ;2021