Knudsen Søren Valgreen, Kristensen Inge, Kure-Biegel Nanna, Bech Mickael, Agerbak Hanne, Hansen Camilla Plambeck, Mohr-Jensen Christina, Valentin Jan Brink, Petersen Michael Bang, Mainz Jan
Psychiatry, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark.
Danish Center for Health Services Research, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark.
Risk Manag Healthc Policy. 2024 Dec 21;17:3247-3256. doi: 10.2147/RMHP.S495041. eCollection 2024.
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted global economies, social structures, and public health systems. However, Denmark stood out as an exception, maintaining steady life expectancy during this period. This raises important questions about the factors that strengthened the Danish healthcare system and society against the pandemic's challenges.
The Danish healthcare system serves 5.8 million citizens with free care, advanced digital infrastructure, and comprehensive health registers. Under the auspices of the Danish Society for Patient Safety, insights from Denmark's response to COVID-19 were collected from the onset of the pandemic. This paper builds on these collected experiences, covering crucial areas such as strategies to reduce transmission, digitalization, management of non-COVID diseases, tracking adverse events, workplace well-being, development and use of predictive models, and maintaining public trust. Patient-level data on contacts, contact types, and clinical procedures were obtained from health administrative systems and clinical quality registries. All results were reported as raw counts, with no statistical analyses applied.
During COVID-19, Denmark's healthcare system demonstrated resilience by adapting swiftly, achieving a high vaccination rate, shifting to virtual care, enhancing response capacity through real-time adverse event tracking, and supporting healthcare workers through crisis teams minimizing prolonged sick leave. Predictive models accurately forecasted healthcare demands, while public health strategies focused on monitoring public behavior and trust in authorities.
A key lesson from Denmark's handling of COVID-19 is that much of the observed resilience stemmed from pre-existing structures that could be reused, further developed, and expanded. This resilience was further enhanced by an unprecedented readiness for change, cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary collaboration, and the removal of typical barriers. These experiences aim to further improve the quality and resilience of healthcare in Denmark and inspire other countries' healthcare systems. Moving forward, acknowledging chronic conflicts as the new normal, coupled with the reminder that "hope is not a strategy", could serve as a pivotal approach.
新冠疫情扰乱了全球经济、社会结构和公共卫生系统。然而，丹麦却是个例外，在此期间其预期寿命保持稳定。这引发了一些重要问题，即哪些因素增强了丹麦医疗系统和社会应对疫情挑战的能力。
丹麦医疗系统为580万公民提供免费医疗服务，拥有先进的数字基础设施和全面的健康登记系统。在丹麦患者安全协会的支持下，从疫情开始就收集了丹麦应对新冠疫情的经验。本文基于这些收集到的经验，涵盖了减少传播的策略、数字化、非新冠疾病的管理、不良事件跟踪、工作场所福祉、预测模型的开发与应用以及维持公众信任等关键领域。关于接触者、接触类型和临床程序的患者层面数据来自卫生行政系统和临床质量登记处。所有结果均以原始计数形式报告，未进行统计分析。
在新冠疫情期间，丹麦医疗系统通过迅速调整展现出了韧性，实现了高疫苗接种率，转向虚拟医疗，通过实时不良事件跟踪提高应对能力，并通过危机团队支持医护人员，尽量减少长期病假。预测模型准确预测了医疗需求，而公共卫生策略则侧重于监测公众行为和对当局的信任。
丹麦应对新冠疫情的一个关键经验是，观察到的大部分韧性源于可重复使用、进一步发展和扩展的现有结构。前所未有的变革意愿、跨部门和跨学科合作以及消除典型障碍进一步增强了这种韧性。这些经验旨在进一步提高丹麦医疗保健的质量和韧性，并激励其他国家的医疗系统。展望未来，将长期冲突视为新常态，并铭记“希望不是一种策略”，可能是一种关键方法。
