Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on a tertiary care public hospital in Singapore: resources and economic costs.

Autor: Cai Y; Health Services & Systems Research, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore., Kwek S; Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore., Tang SSL; Department of Pharmacy, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore., Saffari SE; Centre for Quantitative Medicine, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore., Lum E; Health Services & Systems Research, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore., Yoon S; Health Services & Systems Research, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore., Ansah JP; Health Services & Systems Research, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore., Matchar DB; Health Services & Systems Research, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore., Kwa AL; Department of Pharmacy, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore; SingHealth Duke-NUS Medicine Academic Clinical Programme, Singapore; Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore., Ang KA; Finance Department, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore., Thumboo J; Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore., Ong MEH; Health Services & Systems Research, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore; Department of Emergency Medicine, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore., Graves N; Health Services & Systems Research, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore. Electronic address: n.graves@duke-nus.edu.sg.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: The Journal of hospital infection [J Hosp Infect] 2022 Mar; Vol. 121, pp. 1-8. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Dec 11.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhin.2021.12.007
Abstrakt: Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted hospitals to respond with stringent measures. Accurate estimates of costs and resources used in outbreaks can guide evaluations of responses. We report on the financial expenditure associated with COVID-19, the bed-days used for COVID-19 patients and hospital services displaced due to COVID-19 in a Singapore tertiary hospital.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective cost analysis from January to December 2020 in the largest public hospital in Singapore. Costs were estimated from the hospital perspective. We examined financial expenditures made in direct response to COVID-19; hospital admissions data related to COVID-19 inpatients; and the number of outpatient and emergency department visits, non-emergency surgeries, inpatient days in 2020, compared with preceding years of 2018 and 2019. Bayesian time-series was used to estimate the magnitude of displaced services.
Results: USD $41.96 million was incurred in the hospital for COVID-19-related expenses. Facilities set-up and capital assets accounted for 51.6% of the expenditure; patient-care supplies comprised 35.1%. Of the 19,611 inpatients tested for COVID-19 in 2020, 727 (3.7%) had COVID-19. The total inpatient- and intensive care unit (ICU)-days for COVID-19 patients in 2020 were 8009 and 8 days, respectively. A decline in all hospital services was observed from February following a raised disease outbreak alert level; most services quickly resumed when the lockdown was lifted in June.
Conclusion: COVID-19 led to an increase in healthcare expenses and a displacement in hospital services. Our findings are useful for informing economic evaluations of COVID-19 response and provide some information about the expected costs of future outbreaks.
(Copyright © 2021 The Healthcare Infection Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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