Senathirajah Yalini, Kaufman David R, Cato Kenrick, Daniel Pia, Roblin Patricia, Kushniruk Andre, Borycki Elizabeth M, Feld Emanuel, Debi Poli
School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.
Emergency Preparedness Division, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, Brooklyn, NY, United States.
Online J Public Health Inform. 2025 Mar 26;17:e63681. doi: 10.2196/63681.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, hospitals encountered numerous challenges that compounded their difficulties. Some of these challenges directly impacted patient care, such as the need to expand capacities, adjust services, and use new knowledge to save lives in an ever-evolving situation. In addition, hospitals faced regulatory challenges.
This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study that aimed to compare the effects of reporting requirements on a small independent hospital and a large network hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We used both quantitative and qualitative analyses and conducted 51 interviews, which were thematically analyzed. We quantified the changes in regulatory reporting requirements during the first 14 months of the pandemic.
Reporting requirements placed a substantial time burden on key clinical personnel at the small independent hospital, consequently reducing the time available for patient care. Conversely, the large network hospital had dedicated nonclinical staff responsible for reporting duties, and their robust health information system facilitated this work.
The discrepancy in health IT capabilities suggests that there may be significant institutional inequities affecting smaller hospitals' ability to respond to a pandemic and adequately support public health efforts. Electronic certification guidelines are essential to addressing the substantial equity issues. We discuss in detail the health care policy implications of these findings.
在2020年新冠疫情期间，医院面临诸多挑战，这些挑战使它们的困难更加复杂。其中一些挑战直接影响了患者护理，比如在不断变化的情况下，需要扩大医疗能力、调整服务以及运用新知识来挽救生命。此外，医院还面临监管方面的挑战。
本文介绍了一项定性研究的结果，该研究旨在比较新冠疫情期间报告要求对一家小型独立医院和一家大型网络医院的影响。
我们采用了定量和定性分析方法，进行了51次访谈，并对访谈内容进行了主题分析。我们对疫情头14个月监管报告要求的变化进行了量化。
报告要求给小型独立医院的关键临床人员带来了沉重的时间负担，从而减少了可用于患者护理的时间。相反，大型网络医院有专门的非临床工作人员负责报告工作，其强大的健康信息系统也为这项工作提供了便利。
卫生信息技术能力的差异表明，可能存在严重的机构不平等问题，影响较小医院应对疫情和充分支持公共卫生工作的能力。电子认证指南对于解决重大的公平问题至关重要。我们将详细讨论这些研究结果对医疗保健政策的影响。
