The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Management of Mental Health Services for Hospitalized Patients in Sibiu County—Central Region, Romania
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic brought a burden and represented a challenge for the Romanian medical system. This study explored the consequences that COVID epidemiological measures had on the quality of the mental health care provided to hospitalized patients in a regional psychiatric hospital...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-04-01
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| Series: | Healthcare |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/11/9/1291 |
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| author | Ciprian Băcilă Laura Ștef Mihaela Bucuță Claudia Elena Anghel Bogdan Neamțu Adrian Boicean Cosmin Mohor Andreea Angela Ștețiu Mihai Roman |
| author_facet | Ciprian Băcilă Laura Ștef Mihaela Bucuță Claudia Elena Anghel Bogdan Neamțu Adrian Boicean Cosmin Mohor Andreea Angela Ștețiu Mihai Roman |
| author_sort | Ciprian Băcilă |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic brought a burden and represented a challenge for the Romanian medical system. This study explored the consequences that COVID epidemiological measures had on the quality of the mental health care provided to hospitalized patients in a regional psychiatric hospital in Romania. Materials and methods: Both patient-level and hospital-level indicators were considered for this comparative retrospective study. On the one hand, we extracted patient-level indicators, such as sociodemographics, diagnosis, admission, and discharge dates for 7026 hospitalized patients (3701 women, average age = 55.14) from hospital records. On the other hand, for the hospital-level indicators, we included indicators referring to the aggregated concept of mental health services, such as case mix index, length of stay, bed occupancy rate and patients’ degree of satisfaction. Data extracted covered a period of two years (1 March 2019–28 February 2021) before and during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: We found that, compared to the pre-pandemic period, the pandemic period was marked by a drastic decrease in hospitalized patient admissions, coupled with an increase in emergency-based admissions. Other management indicators, such as the case mix index, the number of cases contracted/performed, and the degree of patient satisfaction, decreased. In contrast, the average length of stay and bed occupancy rate increased. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the first year, raised multiple difficult issues for the management of psychiatric hospitals. It imposed an application of strict measures designed to face these new and unprecedented challenges. Our findings offer a detailed snapshot of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of its impact on mental health services and suggest some future directions. Implications for hospital management are discussed.Keywords: hospital management; COVID-19 pandemic; hospitalized patients; psychiatric hospital; mental health services. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T04:18:09Z |
| format | Article |
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| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2227-9032 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T04:18:09Z |
| publishDate | 2023-04-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Healthcare |
| spelling | doaj.art-724c578b2255439caf0401aaf7be1a5e2023-11-17T22:57:58ZengMDPI AGHealthcare2227-90322023-04-01119129110.3390/healthcare11091291The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Management of Mental Health Services for Hospitalized Patients in Sibiu County—Central Region, RomaniaCiprian Băcilă0Laura Ștef1Mihaela Bucuță2Claudia Elena Anghel3Bogdan Neamțu4Adrian Boicean5Cosmin Mohor6Andreea Angela Ștețiu7Mihai Roman8Dental and Nursing Medical Department, Faculty of Medicine, “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, 550169 Sibiu, RomaniaDental and Nursing Medical Department, Faculty of Medicine, “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, 550169 Sibiu, RomaniaDepartment of Psychology, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, 550024 Sibiu, RomaniaDental and Nursing Medical Department, Faculty of Medicine, “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, 550169 Sibiu, RomaniaClinical Medical Department, Faculty of Medicine, The “Lucian Blaga” University Sibiu, 550169 Sibiu, RomaniaClinical Medical Department, Faculty of Medicine, The “Lucian Blaga” University Sibiu, 550169 Sibiu, RomaniaPreclinical Department, Faculty of Medicine, The “Lucian Blaga” University Sibiu, 550169 Sibiu, RomaniaDental and Nursing Medical Department, Faculty of Medicine, “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, 550169 Sibiu, RomaniaClinical Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, The “Lucian Blaga” University Sibiu, 550169 Sibiu, RomaniaIntroduction: The COVID-19 pandemic brought a burden and represented a challenge for the Romanian medical system. This study explored the consequences that COVID epidemiological measures had on the quality of the mental health care provided to hospitalized patients in a regional psychiatric hospital in Romania. Materials and methods: Both patient-level and hospital-level indicators were considered for this comparative retrospective study. On the one hand, we extracted patient-level indicators, such as sociodemographics, diagnosis, admission, and discharge dates for 7026 hospitalized patients (3701 women, average age = 55.14) from hospital records. On the other hand, for the hospital-level indicators, we included indicators referring to the aggregated concept of mental health services, such as case mix index, length of stay, bed occupancy rate and patients’ degree of satisfaction. Data extracted covered a period of two years (1 March 2019–28 February 2021) before and during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: We found that, compared to the pre-pandemic period, the pandemic period was marked by a drastic decrease in hospitalized patient admissions, coupled with an increase in emergency-based admissions. Other management indicators, such as the case mix index, the number of cases contracted/performed, and the degree of patient satisfaction, decreased. In contrast, the average length of stay and bed occupancy rate increased. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the first year, raised multiple difficult issues for the management of psychiatric hospitals. It imposed an application of strict measures designed to face these new and unprecedented challenges. Our findings offer a detailed snapshot of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of its impact on mental health services and suggest some future directions. Implications for hospital management are discussed.Keywords: hospital management; COVID-19 pandemic; hospitalized patients; psychiatric hospital; mental health services.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/11/9/1291hospital managementCOVID-19 pandemichospitalized patientspsychiatric hospitalmental health services |
| spellingShingle | Ciprian Băcilă Laura Ștef Mihaela Bucuță Claudia Elena Anghel Bogdan Neamțu Adrian Boicean Cosmin Mohor Andreea Angela Ștețiu Mihai Roman The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Management of Mental Health Services for Hospitalized Patients in Sibiu County—Central Region, Romania Healthcare hospital management COVID-19 pandemic hospitalized patients psychiatric hospital mental health services |
| title | The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Management of Mental Health Services for Hospitalized Patients in Sibiu County—Central Region, Romania |
| title_full | The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Management of Mental Health Services for Hospitalized Patients in Sibiu County—Central Region, Romania |
| title_fullStr | The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Management of Mental Health Services for Hospitalized Patients in Sibiu County—Central Region, Romania |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Management of Mental Health Services for Hospitalized Patients in Sibiu County—Central Region, Romania |
| title_short | The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Management of Mental Health Services for Hospitalized Patients in Sibiu County—Central Region, Romania |
| title_sort | impact of the covid 19 pandemic on the management of mental health services for hospitalized patients in sibiu county central region romania |
| topic | hospital management COVID-19 pandemic hospitalized patients psychiatric hospital mental health services |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/11/9/1291 |
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