Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Medical Informatics
Date Submitted: Feb 5, 2022
Open Peer Review Period: Feb 5, 2022 - Feb 15, 2022
Date Accepted: Apr 28, 2022
Date Submitted to PubMed: May 2, 2022
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
The Role of Internet Hospitals during the COVID-19 Era in China：a retrospective, cross-sectional study
ABSTRACT
Background:
The rapid development of internet hospitals in China has successfully contributed to reduce potential disease spread and avoid overloading of healthcare system during the COVID-19 era. The epidemic also triggered us to develop a unique research on human online medical behaviors under strict quarantine policy. Long-term obveration was followed to clarify target hospital’s online health service capacity, and capture user demand fluctuations and trends.
Objective:
To provide implications for the construction of Internet hospitals in the COVID-19 era.
Methods:
We collected data from The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine (SAHZU) internet hospital from November 1st, 2019, to September 16th, 2021. Over 900,000 users were analyzed with respect to the demographic characteristics, distributions of departments and user selections, vibration of registrations and consultations, and consulting behaviors. Interrupted time series (ITS) analysis was adapted to evaluate the impact of this momentous emergency event and its long-term trends. Three investigations were conducted synchronously to determine users’ authentic demands and medical appeals on online hospitals.
Results:
1. The general portrait of internet hospital users is young or middle-aged women, located in Zhejiang and surrounding provinces. 2. The ITS model indicated that after the intervention (the social distancing policy) was implemented in outbreak period, the number of users significantly increased (β_2=105.78, P<0.001). And long-term waves of COVID-19 lead to the increasing number of online users post-pandemic period (β_3=0.167, P<0.001). 3. We summarized eight major demands at internet hospital during the national shutdown period and afterwards. Online consultation and information service persisted to be the universal demands. Users’ medical behavior patterns changed from onsite to online as improved demand. Concerns about medical safety and quality, with timing and cost comes next.
Conclusions:
The epidemic has spawned the explosive growth of tele-health and this trend is irreversible. As we shared the practical examples of one public Internet hospitals in China, we put forward suggestions on the future direction of tele-health. Vital experience in the construction of Internet hospital were provided in the normalization of COVID-19 prevention and control, which can be demonstrated as a model of Internet hospital management practice for different medical institutions. Clinical Trial: None
Citation
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