Chang Ya-Ting, Chiang Shu-Chiung, Lee Wui-Chiang, Chen Tzeng-Ji, Hwang Shinn-Jang
Department of Family Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
Department of Financial Engineering and Actuarial Mathematics, Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
J Chin Med Assoc. 2021 Oct 1;84(10):951-955. doi: 10.1097/JCMA.0000000000000569.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spread all over the world in 2020. In the face of the sudden pandemic, workforce mobilization has been of critical concern to medical institutions. During the pandemic, the public's behaviors of seeking medical assistance have also changed. Using the real-world data of a large medical center in Taiwan, this study aimed to analyze the fluctuations of outpatient visits among various departments and divisions in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and to provide suggestions for staff allocation in similar future events.
Data of outpatient visits at Taipei Veterans General Hospital were obtained for analysis. The weekly fluctuations of outpatient visits among 36 departments or divisions were computed for 8 weeks from February 3 to March 29, 2020, the early phase of the pandemic. The monthly data of outpatient visits by department and division in March 2020 were also extracted for comparison with those in March 2019. A simple regression equation was used to calculate the weekly trends.
Average outpatient visits decreased by 26% in 2 months following the outbreak. Among the 36 departments or divisions, ophthalmology, orthopedics, and cardiology underwent marked declines after the outbreak; the slopes of the simple regression equation were -110.8, -100.7, and -99.2, respectively. By contrast, transfusion medicine, toxicology, transplantation surgery, pediatric surgery, chest surgery, technical aid, and oncology were divisions less influenced. In the year-over-year comparison, infection was the only department or division with positive growth (20.5%), whereas all others exhibited negative growth.
In the future, we can fulfil the additional personnel needs during a pandemic by redeploying physicians from departments experiencing a reduced workload. Hospitals should also establish preparatory employee training programs to ensure that the reassigned personnel are adequately equipped to serve in their new positions.
2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）于2020年在全球蔓延。面对这一突如其来的大流行，医疗机构的劳动力调配一直是至关重要的关注点。在大流行期间，公众寻求医疗救助的行为也发生了变化。本研究利用台湾一家大型医疗中心的真实世界数据，旨在分析COVID-19大流行早期各科室门诊量的波动情况，并为未来类似事件中的人员配置提供建议。
获取台北荣民总医院的门诊数据进行分析。计算了2020年2月3日至3月29日这一疫情早期8周内36个科室门诊量的每周波动情况。还提取了2020年3月各科室的月度门诊数据，与2019年3月的数据进行比较。使用简单回归方程计算每周趋势。
疫情爆发后的2个月内，平均门诊量下降了26%。在36个科室中，眼科、骨科和心脏病科在疫情爆发后门诊量显著下降；简单回归方程的斜率分别为-110.8、-100.7和-99.2。相比之下，输血医学、毒理学、移植外科、小儿外科、胸外科、技术援助和肿瘤科受影响较小。在同比比较中，感染科是唯一呈正增长的科室（20.5%），而其他所有科室均呈负增长。
未来，我们可以通过从工作量减少的科室重新调配医生来满足大流行期间的额外人员需求。医院还应建立预备员工培训计划，以确保重新分配的人员有足够能力在新岗位上服务。
