The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on outpatients of internal medicine and pediatrics

Abstract

This study analyzed the changes in the number of outpatients and disease presentation during the entirety of 2020, the period of COVID-19 pandemic.The average annual number of outpatient visits between 2017 and 2019 (before COVID-19) and the total number of outpatient visits in 2020 (COVID-19 period) were compared. Diagnostic codes were identified during 2 periods to analyze changes in the number of outpatient visits according to disease and month.The average annual number of outpatient visits was 47,105 before, and 40,786 during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a decrease of 13.4%. The number of outpatient visits in internal medicine decreased by 10.2% during the COVID-19 pandemic and tended to rebound during the second half of the year. However, the number of outpatient visits in the pediatric department decreased by 37.5% overall throughout the COVID-19 period and continued to decline in the second half of the year. The number of outpatients with infectious diseases decreased significantly (35.9%) compared to noninfectious diseases (cancer, 5.0%; circulatory disease, 4.1%). In addition, the number of outpatient visits due to viral diseases continued to decline, while the incidence of bacterial diseases increased rapidly in the second half of the year.This study confirmed that the number of outpatient visits due to bacterial or viral infections decreased throughout the COVID-19 crisis. Therefore, expanding public health and telemedicine services is necessary to prevent secondary health problems caused by essential medical use restrictions.

ECG Utilization Patterns of Patients With Arrhythmias During COVID-19 Epidemic and Post-SARS-CoV-2 Eras in Shanghai, China

“…But the suppressed health-seeking demand from non-COVID-19 diseases was released after the lockdown period, forming a drastic post-lockdown surge. This fall-rebound pattern was also reported by a study from Israel in that noted a decrease in hospital admissions for myocardial infarction was observed during the early stage of the epidemic, as well as a rebounding increase upon the receding end of the first wave of the epidemic ( 11 ) Another study from Korea also showed that the number of outpatient visits in internal medicine decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic and tended to rebound during the second half of the year ( 19 ) Subsequently, medical visits gradually fell back to the baseline level of prior years, reflecting the normalization of health-seeking demand during the post-SARS-CoV-2 period in China.…”

Performance analysis of hospitals before and during the COVID-19 in Iran: A cross-sectional study

“…The highest percentage change was related to the number of outpatients, representing a considerable decline. Previous studies demonstrated that the average annual number of outpatient visits [21][22][23][24][25][26], inpatient admission, MRI services and surgical decreased during COVID-19 [27][28][29]. Hung et al, reported with the rise in inpatients, the…”

Evaluating private hospital performance before and during COVID-19 in China

“…The main reason is that many private hospitals with insufficient manpower and resources were forced to shut down in order to prevent cross-infection during the epidemic, resulting in a significant decrease in the number of admissions and surgeries and revenues. [32][33][34] This provides evidence that COVID-19 caused great damage to the hospital system, and it was also confirmed by Jalilian et al, [31] King et al, [35] Byun et al, [36] and He et al [37] Similarly, Chen et al [38] argued that the revenue of public hospitals dropped dramatically during COVID-19, but recovered after COVID-19. In U.S. hospitals, operating margins decreased during the first 6 quarters of the COVID-19 crisis.…”