Impact on Health Care Systems

While almost every aspect of our lives has changed, the most dramatic impact of this pandemic is on our health care system. Priorities of care shifted rapidly to combat the virus as a top priority. Significant reduction of non-COVID-19-related health care has been universally recommended and adopted across the world. Care deemed to be “non-essential” or less “critical” is to be deferred until we win this fight. Capacity in the health care systems had to be created to accommodate the rising number of patients with COVID-19 infection, particularly those needing critical care. Hospital beds, intensive care units (ICUs), operating rooms, and emergency services had to gear up for the tsunami of the “surge”. Outpatient care for other medical conditions was drastically diminished to free up downstream resources, personnel, and protective equipment. Virtual care increasingly replaced personal care across the board. In addition to downscaling, as the “surge” hit some of the major metropolitan regions worldwide, health care systems had to quickly adapt by strategies of reallocation, repurposing, and deployment of providers, equipment and resources towards COVID-19 care. The urgent need to increase capacity also prompted the rapid construction of emergency health care facilities, repurposing of existing buildings such as convention centers for health care delivery, and recruiting additional health care support from retired health providers and the military. It is unclear right now how this shift of resources to combat COVID-19 will impact the outcomes of reduced care for other conditions. This will have to be measured after this global crisis is over.