For Publishers
DiscoveryMetadataPeer reviewHostingPublishing
For Researchers
JoinPublishReviewCollect
Register
Blog
About
Search
Advanced search
My ScienceOpen
Search
For Publishers
For Researchers
Blog
About
15
views
14
references
 Top references
cited by
25
    
0 reviews
 Review
0
comments
 Comment
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
1 collections
    0
    shares
      115
      similar
       All similar
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: not found

      A country-level analysis comparing hospital capacity and utilisation during the first COVID-19 wave across Europe

      research-article

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisherPMC
      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Background

          : The exponential increase in SARS-CoV-2 infections during the first wave of the pandemic created an extraordinary overload and demand on hospitals, especially intensive care units (ICUs), across Europe. European countries have implemented different measures to address the surge ICU capacity, but little is known about the extent. The aim of this paper is to compare the rates of hospitalised COVID-19 patients in acute and ICU care and the levels of national surge capacity for intensive care beds across 16 European countries and Lombardy region during the first wave of the pandemic (28 February to 31 July).

          Methods

          : For this country level analysis, we used data on SARS-CoV-2 cases, current and/or cumulative hospitalised COVID-19 patients and current and/or cumulative COVID-19 patients in ICU care. To analyse whether capacities were exceeded, we also retrieved information on the numbers of hospital beds, and on (surge) capacity of ICU beds during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic from the COVID-19 Health System Response Monitor (HSRM). Treatment days and mean length of hospital stay were calculated to assess hospital utilisation.

          Results

          : Hospital and ICU capacity varied widely across countries. Our results show that utilisation of acute care bed capacity by patients with COVID-19 did not exceed 38.3% in any studied country. However, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Lombardy would not have been able to treat all patients with COVID-19 requiring intensive care during the first wave without an ICU surge capacity. Indicators of hospital utilisation were not consistently related to the number of SARS-CoV-2 infections. The mean number of hospital days associated with one SARS-CoV-2 case ranged from 1∙3 (Norway) to 11∙8 (France).

          Conclusion

          : In many countries, the increase in ICU capacity was important to accommodate the high demand for intensive care during the first COVID-19 wave.

          Related collections

          Most cited references14

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: found
          Is Open Access

          COVID-19 length of hospital stay: a systematic review and data synthesis

          Eleanor Rees, Emily S Nightingale, Yalda Jafari … (2020)
          Background The COVID-19 pandemic has placed an unprecedented strain on health systems, with rapidly increasing demand for healthcare in hospitals and intensive care units (ICUs) worldwide. As the pandemic escalates, determining the resulting needs for healthcare resources (beds, staff, equipment) has become a key priority for many countries. Projecting future demand requires estimates of how long patients with COVID-19 need different levels of hospital care. Methods We performed a systematic review of early evidence on length of stay (LoS) of patients with COVID-19 in hospital and in ICU. We subsequently developed a method to generate LoS distributions which combines summary statistics reported in multiple studies, accounting for differences in sample sizes. Applying this approach, we provide distributions for total hospital and ICU LoS from studies in China and elsewhere, for use by the community. Results We identified 52 studies, the majority from China (46/52). Median hospital LoS ranged from 4 to 53 days within China, and 4 to 21 days outside of China, across 45 studies. ICU LoS was reported by eight studies—four each within and outside China—with median values ranging from 6 to 12 and 4 to 19 days, respectively. Our summary distributions have a median hospital LoS of 14 (IQR 10–19) days for China, compared with 5 (IQR 3–9) days outside of China. For ICU, the summary distributions are more similar (median (IQR) of 8 (5–13) days for China and 7 (4–11) days outside of China). There was a visible difference by discharge status, with patients who were discharged alive having longer LoS than those who died during their admission, but no trend associated with study date. Conclusion Patients with COVID-19 in China appeared to remain in hospital for longer than elsewhere. This may be explained by differences in criteria for admission and discharge between countries, and different timing within the pandemic. In the absence of local data, the combined summary LoS distributions provided here can be used to model bed demands for contingency planning and then updated, with the novel method presented here, as more studies with aggregated statistics emerge outside China.
          Article 0 comments Cited 238 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: found

            Hospital surge capacity in a tertiary emergency referral centre during the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy

            L Carenzo, E Costantini, M. Greco … (2020)
            The first person-to-person transmission of the 2019 novel coronavirus in Italy on 21 February 2020 led to an infection chain that represents one of the largest known COVID-19 outbreaks outside Asia. In northern Italy in particular, we rapidly experienced a critical care crisis due to a shortage of intensive care beds, as we expected according to data reported in China. Based on our experience of managing this surge, we produced this review to support other healthcare services in preparedness and training of hospitals during the current coronavirus outbreak. We had a dedicated task force that identified a response plan, which included: (1) establishment of dedicated, cohorted intensive care units for COVID-19-positive patients; (2) design of appropriate procedures for pre-triage, diagnosis and isolation of suspected and confirmed cases; and (3) training of all staff to work in the dedicated intensive care unit, in personal protective equipment usage and patient management. Hospital multidisciplinary and departmental collaboration was needed to work on all principles of surge capacity, including: space definition; supplies provision; staff recruitment; and ad hoc training. Dedicated protocols were applied where full isolation of spaces, staff and patients was implemented. Opening the unit and the whole hospital emergency process required the multidisciplinary, multi-level involvement of healthcare providers and hospital managers all working towards a common goal: patient care and hospital safety. Hospitals should be prepared to face severe disruptions to their routine and it is very likely that protocols and procedures might require re-discussion and updating on a daily basis.
            Article 0 comments Cited 154 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: found
              Is Open Access

              Indications for healthcare surge capacity in European countries facing an exponential increase in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases, March 2020

              Frederik Verelst, Elise Kuylen, Philippe Beutels (2020)
              European healthcare systems face extreme pressure from coronavirus disease (COVID-19). We relate country-specific accumulated COVID-19 deaths (intensity approach) and active COVID-19 cases (magnitude approach) to measures of healthcare system capacity: hospital beds, healthcare workers and healthcare expenditure. Modelled by the intensity approach with a composite measure for healthcare capacity, the countries experiencing the highest pressure on 25 March 2020 - relative to Italy on 11 March - were Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and France (www.covid-hcpressure.org).
              Article 0 comments Cited 86 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
                Bookmark
                All references

                Author and article information

                Journal
                Journal ID (nlm-ta): Health Policy
                Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Health Policy
                Title: Health Policy (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
                Publisher: Elsevier B.V.
                ISSN (Print): 0168-8510
                ISSN (Electronic): 1872-6054
                Publication date PMC-release: 1 December 2021
                Publication date (Electronic): 1 December 2021
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Department of Health Care Management Technische Universität Berlin Administrative office H80 Straße des 17. Juni 13 10623 Berlin Germany
                [2 ]European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies WHO European Centre for Health Policy Eurostation (Office 07C020) Place Victor Horta/Victor Hortaplein, 40/10 1060 Brussels Belgium
                Author notes
                [* ]Corresponding authors. Universität Berlin Department of Health Care Management Administrative office H80 Straße des 17. Juni 135 10623 Berlin Germany Phone: +49 30 314 22627
                [#]

                These authors equally contributed to the work

                Article
                Publisher Item ID: S0168-8510(21)00290-6
                DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2021.11.009
                PMC ID: 8632742
                PubMed ID: 34924210
                SO-VID: 6e950dd6-10f6-4fa5-be99-9c5f59613c8f
                Copyright © © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
                License:

                Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.

                History
                Date received : 29 May 2021
                Date revision received : 29 October 2021
                Date accepted : 17 November 2021
                Categories
                Subject: Article

                ScienceOpen disciplines: Social policy & Welfare
                Keywords: covid-19,hospital capacity,hospital utilisation,intensive care,icu surge capacity,be, belgium,de, germany,dk, denmark,gr, greece,hsrm, health system response monitor,icu, intensive care unit,ie, ireland,it, italy,it-25, lombardy,nl, the netherlands,no, norway,owid, our world in data,ppe, personal protective equipment,uk, united kingdom
                Data availability:
                ScienceOpen disciplines: Social policy & Welfare
                Keywords: covid-19, hospital capacity, hospital utilisation, intensive care, icu surge capacity, be, belgium, de, germany, dk, denmark, gr, greece, hsrm, health system response monitor, icu, intensive care unit, ie, ireland, it, italy, it-25, lombardy, nl, the netherlands, no, norway, owid, our world in data, ppe, personal protective equipment, uk, united kingdom

                Comments

                Comment on this article

                scite_

                Similar content115

                See all similar

                Cited by25

                See all cited by

                Most referenced authors641

                See all reference authors