Faculty of Management, Warsaw University of Technology, 02-524 Warszawa, Poland.
Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Commodity Science, Kazimierz Pułaski University of Technology and Humanities, 26-610 Radom, Poland.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Nov 11;19(22):14827. doi: 10.3390/ijerph192214827.
Unlike many industries, healthcare was simultaneously affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in two opposite ways. On the one hand, the industry faced shortages and overload of many medical representatives such as nurses and infectious disease professionals, but on the other, many medical professionals such as dentists were left with considerably reduced demand. The objective of this paper is to study the efficiency of medical staff allocation and the performance of small and medium sized outpatient clinics in Poland during the COVID-19 pandemic. Owing to the contemporaneity of this problem, we have employed a multiple case study approach. Our sample comprises 5 small and medium-sized outpatient clinics located in Poland in the 3-year period 2019-2021. The results indicate a considerable percentage of medical staff employed in small and medium-sized outpatient clinics remained outside the pandemic, despite their potential provision of healthcare services. Four of the five clinics studied remained passive towards the pandemic. In view of future pandemics, the indications we provide have practical implications for outpatient clinics executives and public health policymakers.
与许多行业不同，医疗保健行业同时受到 COVID-19 大流行的两种截然相反的影响。一方面，该行业面临着许多医疗代表（如护士和传染病专家）的短缺和超负荷，但另一方面，许多医疗专业人员（如牙医）的需求却大幅减少。本文的目的是研究 COVID-19 大流行期间波兰小型和中型门诊的医护人员配置效率和表现。由于这个问题的同时性，我们采用了多案例研究方法。我们的样本包括波兰的 5 家小型和中型门诊，时间跨度为 2019-2021 年的 3 年。结果表明，尽管小型和中型门诊有提供医疗服务的潜力，但仍有相当比例的医护人员在大流行期间未被雇用。所研究的 5 家诊所中有 4 家对大流行持被动态度。考虑到未来的大流行，我们提供的指示对门诊主管和公共卫生政策制定者具有实际意义。
