Hu Xiaojing, Fang Hongjun, Wang Ping
Medical Affairs Department, Peking University First Hospital, Beijing 100034, China.
Trop Med Infect Dis. 2022 Aug 15;7(8):184. doi: 10.3390/tropicalmed7080184.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant damage to global healthcare systems. Previous studies regarding COVID-19’s impact on outpatient numbers focused only on a specific department, lacking research data for multiple departments in general hospitals. We assessed differences in COVID-19’s impact on outpatient numbers for different departments to help hospital managers allocate outpatient doctor resources more effectively during the pandemic. We compared the outpatient numbers of 24 departments in a general hospital in Beijing in 2019 and 2020. We also examined an indicator not mentioned in previous studies, monthly departmental patient reservation rates. The results show that, compared with 2019, 2020 outpatient numbers decreased overall by 33.36%. Ten departments’ outpatient numbers decreased >33.36%; however, outpatient numbers increased in two departments. In 2020, the overall patient reservation rate in 24 departments was 82.22% of the 2019 reservation rate; the rates in 14 departments were <82.22%. Moreover, patient reservation rates varied across different months. Our research shows that COVID-19’s impact on different departments also varied. Additionally, our research suggests that well-known departments will be less affected by COVID-19, as will departments related to tumor treatment, where there may also be an increase in patient numbers. Patient reservation rates are an indicator worthy of attention. We suggest that hospital managers classify departments according to changes in outpatient numbers and patient reservation rates and adopt accurate, dynamic, and humanized management strategies to allocate outpatient doctor resources.
新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情对全球医疗系统造成了重大破坏。以往关于新型冠状病毒肺炎对门诊量影响的研究仅聚焦于某一特定科室，缺乏综合医院多个科室的研究数据。我们评估了新型冠状病毒肺炎对不同科室门诊量影响的差异，以帮助医院管理者在疫情期间更有效地分配门诊医生资源。我们比较了北京一家综合医院2019年和2020年24个科室的门诊量。我们还研究了一个以往研究未提及的指标，即各科室每月的患者预约率。结果显示，与2019年相比，2020年门诊量总体下降了33.36%。10个科室的门诊量下降幅度超过33.36%；然而，有两个科室的门诊量有所增加。2020年，24个科室的总体患者预约率为2019年预约率的82.22%；14个科室的预约率低于82.22%。此外，不同月份的患者预约率有所不同。我们的研究表明，新型冠状病毒肺炎对不同科室的影响也各不相同。此外，我们的研究表明，知名科室受新型冠状病毒肺炎的影响较小，肿瘤治疗相关科室也是如此，这些科室的患者数量可能也会增加。患者预约率是一个值得关注的指标。我们建议医院管理者根据门诊量和患者预约率的变化对科室进行分类，并采取准确、动态和人性化的管理策略来分配门诊医生资源。
