The effects of COVID-19 pandemic on A third-line healthcare provider

OBJECTIVE: Pandemics can seriously threaten health systems due to the difficulty in estimating the number and severity of cases, the lack of emergency vaccines, and insufficient drugs and medical devices to meet demand. In pandemics, there is a decrease in patient applications to some departments, while applications to some departments may increase abnormally. In our research, applications and admissions to various departments were examined, and the effects of this situation on the financial situation of the hospital were examined. MATERIAL AND METHOD:The research was conducted retrospectively. The interagency distribution of patients admitted to Şahinbey Research And Practice Hospital and the financial statement of the hospital were examined before and after the pandemic ( March 1 2019 – January 1 2020 and March 1 2020- January 1 2021) 35 sections were included in the study, and their distribution over 10-month periods was evaluated. MedCalc statistics program was used to evaluate the data. RESULTS: Our study is based on 35 sections and 5 categories. Polyclinic applications have decreased by 31.76% in 2020 compared to 2019. A 21.6% decrease in service hospitalizations was found. A total decrease of 5.74% was observed in intensive care compared to the previous year. It was found that the number of surgeries decreased by 22.86%. A decrease was observed in all outpatient clinics in the department-based assessment, while a significant increase in Infectious Diseases was observed in service hospitalizations. When the financial statement of the hospital was evaluated, it was observed that although the hospital income increased, there was a financial loss because the hospital expenses were more. CONCLUSION: While the COVID-19 pandemic changes the normal functioning of hospitals by leading to Interagency differentiation of patient applications, it has led to a concentration in departments that deal one-on-one with COVID-19 patients. KEYWORDS: COVID-19 pandemic, Polyclinic, Department, Intensive care, Surgery, Financial Statement