Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comment
. 2022 Sep 1;11(9):1926-1933.
doi: 10.34172/ijhpm.2021.119. Epub 2021 Aug 31.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Outpatient Service in Primary Healthcare Institutions: An Inspiration From Yinchuan of China

Lu Xu  1 , Lin Zhuo  2 , Jie Zhang  3 , Wu Yang  3 , Guozhen Liu  4 , Siyan Zhan  1   2   5 , Shengfeng Wang  1 , Huijie Xiao  6
Affiliations
Comment

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Outpatient Service in Primary Healthcare Institutions: An Inspiration From Yinchuan of China

Lu Xu et al. Int J Health Policy Manag. .

Abstract

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has posed a great challenge to the healthcare system. This study evaluated the impact of the pandemic on the utilization of primary healthcare (PHC).

Methods: The outpatient data from 158 PHC institutions in Yinchuan from May 1, 2017 to April 30, 2020 were used. The difference in difference (DID) model was used to analyze the difference in the number of outpatient visits per day, total outpatient expenditure per day, and outpatient expenditure per visit between December 2019 and February 2020 compared with the same periods in two previous years. The autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) modelling was used to investigate the association between the outpatient volume and the number of the last week's new COVID-19 cases in Yinchuan, Ningxia, and China.

Results: From December 2019 to February 2020, the decline in the number of outpatient visits per day (DID: -367.21 times, P=.004) was larger than that in two previous years, and a similar trend can be seen in the outpatient expenditure per day. However, the rise in the outpatient expenditure per visit (DID: 19.06 thousand yuan, P=.003) was larger than that in two previous years. In 2020, the outpatient visits for most types of diseases decreased from week 3 and rebounded after week 5. The decline and rebound of outpatient visits in the population aged 45 years and older were steeper than in those younger. The outpatient volume was negatively associated with the number of the last week's new COVID-19 cases.

Conclusion: This study indicated a significant impact of the pandemic on PHC service utilization. Since PHC service is the foundation of the healthcare system in most developing countries, measures should be taken to make PHC help cope with the crisis and relieve the burden of hospital care.

Keywords: COVID-19; Outpatients; Primary Healthcare; Temporal Trend; Utilization.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 3
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment on

References

    1. Zhu N, Zhang D, Wang W. et al. A novel coronavirus from patients with pneumonia in China, 2019. N Engl J Med. 2020;382(8):727–733. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2001017. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. WHO announces COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. World Health Organization website. http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/health-emergencies/coronavirusc.... Accessed January 21, 2021. Updated March 1, 2020.
    1. Chang HJ, Huang N, Lee CH, Hsu YJ, Hsieh CJ, Chou YJ. The impact of the SARS epidemic on the utilization of medical services: SARS and the fear of SARS. Am J Public Health. 2004;94(4):562–564. doi: 10.2105/ajph.94.4.562. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bolkan HA, Bash-Taqi DA, Samai M, Gerdin M, von Schreeb J. Ebola and indirect effects on health service function in sierra leone. PLoS Curr. 2014;6. 10.1371/currents.outbreaks.0307d588df619f9c9447f8ead5b72b2d - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lee H, Park JH. Changes in health care utilization during the MERS epidemic. Int J Infect Dis. 2018;73 Suppl:187. doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2018.04.3838. - DOI