Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on outpatient appointments of rheumatic patients in a non-outbreak area of China

Abstract

Summary Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection has caused huge impacts on all of people’s lives and health systems. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, China was the first country to impose lockdown. We aimed to study the influence of COVID-19 on the outpatient visits of rheumatic patients in a non-outbreak area of China. Methods We selected three provincial or ministerial hospitals in Jinan, and collected the outpatient appointments data in rheumatology and immunology departments during the Shandong Province first-level public health emergency response period from 25 January 2020 to 8 March 2020. Results In the early stage, the number of outpatient appointments in the rheumatology and immunology departments of the three provincial or ministerial hospitals were significantly reduced, and gradually restored in the late stage. It showed that in the face of major infectious diseases, strict quarantine measures with the cooperation of the public not only controls the epidemic in a short time, but also lifts the quarantine measures and opens general outpatient clinics in hospitals as soon as possible, thus minimizing the impact on other patients. Interpretation The impact on the western hospital was greater than that on the Chinese medicine hospital, and the impact on the back-up designated hospitals for COVID-19 was the greatest. Online appointment can reduce the risk of infection in outpatients, but not completely solve the follow-up problem of rheumatic patients. Telemedicine provides a new solution for both management of rheumatic patients and control of COVID-19.

Facing the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic: How Can We Allocate Outpatient Doctor Resources More Effectively?

“…On the one hand, we found that compared with 2019, the annual outpatient number of 24 departments combined decreased by 33.36% in 2020. This result is consistent with many previous studies [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. On the other hand, we have several additional findings specific to COVID-19's impact on multiple hospital departments.…”

“…Dis. 2022, 7, 184 2 of 11 dermatology [14], ophthalmology [15], rheumatic [16], pediatrics [17], stomatology [18], neurosurgery [19], otorhinolaryngology [20], mental health care [21], and contraceptive services [22] experienced declining outpatient numbers. Previous studies found that most countries adopted mandatory lockdown policies at different stages to avoid the spread of COVID-19 [23,24]; some hospitals delayed elective surgeries and non-emergency outpatient reservations [25,26] and started providing basic medical support to the public through telemedicine services [27].…”

Psychological Impact of COVID-19 Epidemic on Adolescents: A Large Sample Study in China

“…During the pandemic, we investigated the activated first-level emergency response in all provinces and autonomous regions ( 20 ). Under such circumstances, although negative emotions were found in adolescents in our study, nearly half of them were not knocked down by the epidemic, which in turn activated their anti-frailty ability ( 21 ).…”

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Ophthalmic Outpatient Care in a Tertiary Care Center in Riyadh

“…Many elective surgical interventions were delayed, and non-urgent medical care across all specialties was postponed [ 5 ]. As outpatient clinics are not usually a place of urgent care, they were particularly affected by the pandemic [ 6 , 7 ]. One of the major roles of outpatient care which was halted during this period was routine screening and preventative services, aimed at early detection prevention of disease.…”