School of Public Health, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
School of Public Health, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
BMJ Open. 2023 Feb 10;13(2):e062272. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-062272.
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.
This work is an interrupted time-series study.
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.
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.
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.
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.
新冠疫情对医疗服务利用产生了重大影响。本研究旨在量化在此期间在线和面对面医疗服务利用的变化,从而为传染病爆发期间医疗资源规划提供见解。
这是一项中断时间序列研究。
本研究使用了北京市医院管理局管理的 22 家三级甲等公立医院的月度医院级医疗服务数据和好大夫的在线咨询数据。
这是一项关于新冠疫情前后面对面和在线医疗利用变化的中断时间序列研究。我们比较了新冠疫情对面对面医疗利用(门诊和急诊就诊、出院量)和在线医疗利用(在线咨询量)主要结局的影响。我们还分析了新冠疫情对不同类型疾病医疗利用的影响。
与 2019 年相比,北京市 22 家公立医院的月平均门诊量和出院量分别下降了 36.33%和 35.75%。此外,月平均在线咨询量增加了 90.06%。门诊和住院患者的均值显著下降,分别减少了 1755930 例(p<0.01)和 5920000 例(p<0.01)。在线咨询量增加了 3650 例(p<0.05)。我们发现,四大主要疾病的医疗服务立即出现显著下降,即急性心肌梗死(-174,p<0.1)、肺癌(-2502,p<0.01)、椎间盘疾病(-3756,p<0.01)和帕金森病(-205,p<0.01)。然而,椎间盘疾病(63,p<0.01)和帕金森病(25,p<0.05)的在线咨询量显著增加。2020 年每月有超过 1300 名独特的医生提供在线咨询服务,比 2019 年增加了 35.3%。
新冠疫情期间,在线和面对面医疗服务存在明显的互补趋势。不同疾病的医疗服务利用变化不同。新冠疫情封锁后,非重症患者立即选择在线咨询,但重症患者首先选择医院医疗服务。此外,由于新冠疫情,在线医生服务量显著增加。