Cargando…

The Impacts of COVID-19 on Healthcare Quality in Tertiary Medical Centers—A Retrospective Study on Data from Taiwan Clinical Performance Indicators System

To date, COVID-19 is by far the most impactful contagious disease of the 21st century and it has had a devastating effect on public health in countries around the globe. Elective medical services have declined markedly since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Few studies have compared changes in...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Liu, Shih-An, Wu, Chieh-Liang, Chou, I-Ju, Wang, Pa-Chun, Hsu, Chia-Ling, Chen, Chia-Pei
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8871675/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35206466
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19042278
_version_ 1784657052578086912
author Liu, Shih-An
Wu, Chieh-Liang
Chou, I-Ju
Wang, Pa-Chun
Hsu, Chia-Ling
Chen, Chia-Pei
author_facet Liu, Shih-An
Wu, Chieh-Liang
Chou, I-Ju
Wang, Pa-Chun
Hsu, Chia-Ling
Chen, Chia-Pei
author_sort Liu, Shih-An
collection PubMed
description To date, COVID-19 is by far the most impactful contagious disease of the 21st century and it has had a devastating effect on public health in countries around the globe. Elective medical services have declined markedly since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Few studies have compared changes in healthcare quality before and during the outbreak of COVID-19 in Eastern Asian countries. We aimed to explore the impacts of COVID-19 on healthcare quality among medical centers in Taiwan. This was a retrospective study that collected anonymized data from the Taiwan Clinical Performance Indicator system, which was founded by the Joint Commission of Taiwan, an organization to promote, execute, and certify the nation’s healthcare quality policies. We explored quality indicators reported by more than three-quarters of medical centers in Taiwan from January 2019 to December 2020. The year 2019 was defined as the baseline period and 2020 was defined as the period after the start of the outbreak of COVID-19. Quality indicators from different regions were analyzed. Unscheduled returns of emergency patients within 72 h of their discharge, unscheduled returns of hospitalized patients within 14 days of their discharge, and unscheduled returns of surgical patients to the operating room during hospitalization all declined during the COVID-19 outbreak. Interestingly, the proportion of acute ischemic stroke patients receiving intravenous tissue-type plasminogen activator (IV-tPA) increased during outbreak of COVID-19. There were significant regional variations in healthcare quality indicators among medical centers in northern and middle/southern Taiwan. The outbreak of COVID-19 changed different patterns of healthcare systems. Although healthcare quality seemed to improve, further investigation is warranted to better understand whether those who were in need of returning to the emergency room or hospital were reluctant or were prevented from travel by the shelter-in-place policy.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8871675
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-88716752022-02-25 The Impacts of COVID-19 on Healthcare Quality in Tertiary Medical Centers—A Retrospective Study on Data from Taiwan Clinical Performance Indicators System Liu, Shih-An Wu, Chieh-Liang Chou, I-Ju Wang, Pa-Chun Hsu, Chia-Ling Chen, Chia-Pei Int J Environ Res Public Health Article To date, COVID-19 is by far the most impactful contagious disease of the 21st century and it has had a devastating effect on public health in countries around the globe. Elective medical services have declined markedly since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Few studies have compared changes in healthcare quality before and during the outbreak of COVID-19 in Eastern Asian countries. We aimed to explore the impacts of COVID-19 on healthcare quality among medical centers in Taiwan. This was a retrospective study that collected anonymized data from the Taiwan Clinical Performance Indicator system, which was founded by the Joint Commission of Taiwan, an organization to promote, execute, and certify the nation’s healthcare quality policies. We explored quality indicators reported by more than three-quarters of medical centers in Taiwan from January 2019 to December 2020. The year 2019 was defined as the baseline period and 2020 was defined as the period after the start of the outbreak of COVID-19. Quality indicators from different regions were analyzed. Unscheduled returns of emergency patients within 72 h of their discharge, unscheduled returns of hospitalized patients within 14 days of their discharge, and unscheduled returns of surgical patients to the operating room during hospitalization all declined during the COVID-19 outbreak. Interestingly, the proportion of acute ischemic stroke patients receiving intravenous tissue-type plasminogen activator (IV-tPA) increased during outbreak of COVID-19. There were significant regional variations in healthcare quality indicators among medical centers in northern and middle/southern Taiwan. The outbreak of COVID-19 changed different patterns of healthcare systems. Although healthcare quality seemed to improve, further investigation is warranted to better understand whether those who were in need of returning to the emergency room or hospital were reluctant or were prevented from travel by the shelter-in-place policy. MDPI 2022-02-17 /pmc/articles/PMC8871675/ /pubmed/35206466 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19042278 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Liu, Shih-An
Wu, Chieh-Liang
Chou, I-Ju
Wang, Pa-Chun
Hsu, Chia-Ling
Chen, Chia-Pei
The Impacts of COVID-19 on Healthcare Quality in Tertiary Medical Centers—A Retrospective Study on Data from Taiwan Clinical Performance Indicators System
title The Impacts of COVID-19 on Healthcare Quality in Tertiary Medical Centers—A Retrospective Study on Data from Taiwan Clinical Performance Indicators System
title_full The Impacts of COVID-19 on Healthcare Quality in Tertiary Medical Centers—A Retrospective Study on Data from Taiwan Clinical Performance Indicators System
title_fullStr The Impacts of COVID-19 on Healthcare Quality in Tertiary Medical Centers—A Retrospective Study on Data from Taiwan Clinical Performance Indicators System
title_full_unstemmed The Impacts of COVID-19 on Healthcare Quality in Tertiary Medical Centers—A Retrospective Study on Data from Taiwan Clinical Performance Indicators System
title_short The Impacts of COVID-19 on Healthcare Quality in Tertiary Medical Centers—A Retrospective Study on Data from Taiwan Clinical Performance Indicators System
title_sort impacts of covid-19 on healthcare quality in tertiary medical centers—a retrospective study on data from taiwan clinical performance indicators system
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8871675/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35206466
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19042278
work_keys_str_mv AT liushihan theimpactsofcovid19onhealthcarequalityintertiarymedicalcentersaretrospectivestudyondatafromtaiwanclinicalperformanceindicatorssystem
AT wuchiehliang theimpactsofcovid19onhealthcarequalityintertiarymedicalcentersaretrospectivestudyondatafromtaiwanclinicalperformanceindicatorssystem
AT chouiju theimpactsofcovid19onhealthcarequalityintertiarymedicalcentersaretrospectivestudyondatafromtaiwanclinicalperformanceindicatorssystem
AT wangpachun theimpactsofcovid19onhealthcarequalityintertiarymedicalcentersaretrospectivestudyondatafromtaiwanclinicalperformanceindicatorssystem
AT hsuchialing theimpactsofcovid19onhealthcarequalityintertiarymedicalcentersaretrospectivestudyondatafromtaiwanclinicalperformanceindicatorssystem
AT chenchiapei theimpactsofcovid19onhealthcarequalityintertiarymedicalcentersaretrospectivestudyondatafromtaiwanclinicalperformanceindicatorssystem
AT liushihan impactsofcovid19onhealthcarequalityintertiarymedicalcentersaretrospectivestudyondatafromtaiwanclinicalperformanceindicatorssystem
AT wuchiehliang impactsofcovid19onhealthcarequalityintertiarymedicalcentersaretrospectivestudyondatafromtaiwanclinicalperformanceindicatorssystem
AT chouiju impactsofcovid19onhealthcarequalityintertiarymedicalcentersaretrospectivestudyondatafromtaiwanclinicalperformanceindicatorssystem
AT wangpachun impactsofcovid19onhealthcarequalityintertiarymedicalcentersaretrospectivestudyondatafromtaiwanclinicalperformanceindicatorssystem
AT hsuchialing impactsofcovid19onhealthcarequalityintertiarymedicalcentersaretrospectivestudyondatafromtaiwanclinicalperformanceindicatorssystem
AT chenchiapei impactsofcovid19onhealthcarequalityintertiarymedicalcentersaretrospectivestudyondatafromtaiwanclinicalperformanceindicatorssystem