Hemmati Fazeleh, Jafari Kasra, Mirmohammadkhani Majid
Department of Epidemiology, School of Health Iran University of Medical Sciences Tehran Iran.
Department of Community Medicine, School of Medicine Semnan University of Medical Sciences Semnan Iran.
Health Sci Rep. 2025 Apr 10;8(4):e70639. doi: 10.1002/hsr2.70639. eCollection 2025 Apr.
The COVID-19 pandemic posed significant challenges to healthcare systems worldwide, including Iran. This article examines the Iranian healthcare system's response to hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) bed requirements during the pandemic. Objectives were to describe the number of total, general, and ICU beds and their change before and during the COVID-19 outbreak in Iran and to describe the change variations among provinces and in pandemic and post-pandemic periods.
A cross-sectional study design was used to analyze data from the Statistical Centre of Iran. The data set included information on total, general, and ICU beds across different types of healthcare facilities for pre- and post-pandemic periods. We assessed changes in bed counts (both in crude numbers and population-standardized rates) in the two mentioned periods from March 2015 to 2022.
The study revealed that during the pandemic, there was a notable increase in total, general, and ICU bed counts in Iran. However, when comparing the pre- and post-pandemic periods, ICU beds showed a significantly higher increase (+34.01%) and general beds increased less (+7.47%). The variations in bed count changes among provinces underscored the importance of considering local impacts and resource availability.
The findings demonstrate the adaptability of the Iranian healthcare system to the pandemic. While the system successfully increased ICU bed capacity, there was a shift in resource allocation priorities, with a lesser emphasis on general beds. International comparisons highlight similar strategies employed globally, emphasizing the need for scalable resources during a crisis.
新冠疫情给包括伊朗在内的全球医疗系统带来了重大挑战。本文探讨了伊朗医疗系统在疫情期间对医院和重症监护病房（ICU）床位需求的应对情况。目标是描述伊朗在新冠疫情爆发前和期间的总床位、普通床位和ICU床位数量及其变化，并描述各省份以及疫情期间和疫情后时期的变化差异。
采用横断面研究设计分析来自伊朗统计中心的数据。数据集包括疫情前和疫情后不同类型医疗设施的总床位、普通床位和ICU床位信息。我们评估了2015年3月至2022年上述两个时期床位数量的变化（包括原始数字和人口标准化率）。
研究表明，在疫情期间，伊朗的总床位、普通床位和ICU床位数量显著增加。然而，比较疫情前和疫情后时期，ICU床位的增加幅度显著更高（+34.01%），普通床位增加幅度较小（+7.47%）。各省份床位数量变化的差异凸显了考虑当地影响和资源可用性的重要性。
研究结果表明伊朗医疗系统对疫情具有适应性。虽然该系统成功增加了ICU床位容量，但资源分配优先级发生了转变，对普通床位的重视程度较低。国际比较突出了全球采用的类似策略，强调了危机期间可扩展资源的必要性。
