Department of Research & Evaluation, Kaiser Permanente Southern California, Pasadena, CA, United States.
J Med Internet Res. 2021 Apr 29;23(4):e26558. doi: 10.2196/26558.
BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an abrupt reduction in the use of in-person health care, accompanied by a corresponding surge in the use of telehealth services. However, the extent and nature of changes in health care utilization during the pandemic may differ by care setting. Knowledge of the impact of the pandemic on health care utilization is important to health care organizations and policy makers. OBJECTIVE: The aims of this study are (1) to evaluate changes in in-person health care utilization and telehealth visits during the COVID-19 pandemic and (2) to assess the difference in changes in health care utilization between the pandemic year 2020 and the prepandemic year 2019. METHODS: We retrospectively assembled a cohort consisting of members of a large integrated health care organization, who were enrolled between January 6 and November 2, 2019 (prepandemic year), and between January 5 and October 31, 2020 (pandemic year). The rates of visits were calculated weekly for four settings: inpatient, emergency department (ED), outpatient, and telehealth. Using Poisson models, we assessed the impact of the pandemic on health care utilization during the early days of the pandemic and conducted difference-in-deference (DID) analyses to measure the changes in health care utilization, adjusting for the trend of health care utilization in the prepandemic year. RESULTS: In the early days of the pandemic, we observed significant reductions in inpatient, ED, and outpatient utilization (by 30.2%, 37.0%, and 80.9%, respectively). By contrast, there was a 4-fold increase in telehealth visits between weeks 8 (February 23) and 12 (March 22) in 2020. DID analyses revealed that after adjusting for prepandemic secular trends, the reductions in inpatient, ED, and outpatient visit rates in the early days of the pandemic were 1.6, 8.9, and 367.2 visits per 100 person-years (P<.001), respectively, while the increase in telehealth visits was 272.9 visits per 100 person-years (P<.001). Further analyses suggested that the increase in telehealth visits offset the reduction in outpatient visits by week 26 (June 28, 2020). CONCLUSIONS: In-person health care utilization decreased drastically during the early period of the pandemic, but there was a corresponding increase in telehealth visits during the same period. By end-June 2020, the combined outpatient and telehealth visits had recovered to prepandemic levels.
背景:COVID-19 大流行导致人们对面对面医疗服务的使用急剧减少,同时远程医疗服务的使用相应增加。然而,大流行期间医疗保健利用的变化程度和性质可能因护理环境而异。了解大流行对医疗保健利用的影响对医疗保健组织和政策制定者很重要。
目的:本研究的目的是(1)评估 COVID-19 大流行期间面对面医疗保健利用和远程医疗访问的变化情况,(2)评估大流行年份 2020 年与大流行前年份 2019 年之间医疗保健利用变化的差异。
方法:我们回顾性地组建了一个由大型综合医疗保健组织的成员组成的队列,这些成员于 2019 年 1 月 6 日至 11 月 2 日(大流行前年份)和 2020 年 1 月 5 日至 10 月 31 日(大流行年份)期间入组。每周计算四次就诊设置的就诊率:住院、急诊部(ED)、门诊和远程医疗。我们使用泊松模型评估大流行早期对医疗保健利用的影响,并进行差异分析(DID)以衡量医疗保健利用的变化,同时调整大流行前年份的医疗保健利用趋势。
结果:在大流行的早期,我们观察到住院、ED 和门诊就诊利用率分别显著下降(分别下降 30.2%、37.0%和 80.9%)。相比之下,2020 年第 8 周(2 月 23 日)至第 12 周(3 月 22 日)期间,远程医疗访问量增加了 4 倍。DID 分析表明,在调整大流行前的季节性趋势后,大流行早期住院、ED 和门诊就诊率的下降分别为 1.6、8.9 和 367.2 次/100 人年(P<.001),而远程医疗就诊率的增加为 272.9 次/100 人年(P<.001)。进一步分析表明,到第 26 周(2020 年 6 月 28 日),远程医疗访问量的增加弥补了门诊就诊量的减少。
结论:大流行早期,面对面医疗服务利用率急剧下降,但同期远程医疗服务利用率相应增加。到 2020 年 6 月底,门诊和远程医疗的联合就诊量已恢复到大流行前水平。
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