How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the utilisation of online consultation and face-to-face medical treatment? An interrupted time-series study in Beijing, China.
BMJ Open
; 13(2): e062272, 2023 02 10.
Artículo
en Inglés
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2246731
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on healthcare utilisation. This study aimed to quantify how the online and face-to-face utilisation of healthcare services changed during this time and thus gain insights into the planning of future healthcare resources during the outbreak of infectious diseases.DESIGN:
This work is an interrupted time-series study.SETTING:
Monthly hospital-grade healthcare-service data from 22 tertiary first-class public hospitals managed by the Beijing Hospital Authority and online-consultation data from GoodDoctor were used in this study.METHODS:
This is an interrupted time-series study about the change in face-to-face and online healthcare utilisation before and after the COVID-19 outbreak. We compared the impact of COVID-19 on the primary outcomes of both face-to-face healthcare utilisation (outpatient and emergency visits, discharge volume) and online healthcare utilisation (online consultation volume). And we also analysed the impact of COVID-19 on the healthcare utilisation of different types of diseases.RESULTS:
The monthly average outpatient visits and discharges decreased by 36.33% and 35.75%, respectively, compared with those in 2019 in 22 public hospitals in Beijing. Moreover, the monthly average online consultations increased by 90.06%. A highly significant reduction occurred in the mean outpatients and inpatients, which dropped by 1 755 930 cases (p<0.01) and 5 920 000 cases (p<0.01), respectively. Online consultations rose by 3650 cases (p<0.05). We identified an immediate and significant drop in healthcare services for four major diseases, that is, acute myocardial infarction (-174, p<0.1), lung cancer (-2502, p<0.01), disk disease (-3756, p<0.01) and Parkinson's disease (-205, p<0.01). Otherwise, online consultations for disk disease (63, p<0.01) and Parkinson's disease (25, p<0.05) significantly increased. More than 1300 unique physicians provided online-consultation services per month in 2020, which was 35.3% higher than in 2019.CONCLUSIONS:
Obvious complementary trends in online and face-to-face healthcare services existed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Different changes in healthcare utilisation were shown for different diseases. Non-critically ill patients chose online consultation immediately after the COVID-19 lockdown, but critically ill patients chose hospital healthcare services first. Additionally, the volume of online physician services significantly rose as a result of COVID-19.Palabras clave
Texto completo:
Disponible
Colección:
Bases de datos internacionales
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Enfermedad de Parkinson
/
COVID-19
Tipo de estudio:
Estudio experimental
/
Estudio observacional
Límite:
Humanos
País/Región como asunto:
Asia
Idioma:
Inglés
Revista:
BMJ Open
Año:
2023
Tipo del documento:
Artículo
País de afiliación:
Bmjopen-2022-062272
Similares
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS