Kosin Med J.  2024 Mar;39(1):44-50. 10.7180/kmj.23.126.

Human resources and medical supplies consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic: a single-center study

• Park HJ
• Seo YB
• Park JJ
• Na SH
• Lee J

• KMID: 2556797
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.7180/kmj.23.126

Abstract

Background
In the face of the unexpected coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, every country has struggled with insufficient human resources and medical supplies. This study aims to provide the statistical information necessary for discussing how to model stockpiles of medical resources.
Methods
This study was conducted at the Hallym University Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital, in South Korea. The study duration was 2 weeks, centered on March 16, 2022, when the number of daily confirmed patients with COVID-19 in Korea peaked. The number of human resources was obtained by counting the number of healthcare workers using CCTV. Drug prescriptions and medical device usage were obtained from electronic medical records.
Results
In total, 117 inpatients and 26,485 outpatients were managed at this hospital during the 2-week study period. Daily visits were highest among nurses in all units, followed by doctors and radiology technicians. The mean daily consumption of personal protective equipment (PPE) per bed was 4.3 sets in the intensive care unit (ICU), 1.8 in the semi-ICU, and 1.4 in the ward. Despite the four-fold difference in the number of patients, there was no statistically significant difference between the two wards in the number of daily visits. Drug prescription rates were higher among inpatients than at-home patients.
Conclusions
The higher the COVID-19 severity, the higher the consumption of PPE per patient. Among healthcare workers, nurses had the highest number of inpatient treatment visits for COVID-19. To efficiently utilize, PPE, structures containing more isolation beds in a single negative pressure isolation system would be preferred.

Keyword

COVID-19; Infections; Personal protective equipment

Figure

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  Fig. 1. Various types of isolation units. ICU, intensive care unit.

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  Fig. 2. Mean personal protective equipment (PPE) consumption per day by bed. Mean number of visits per day 2 weeks divided by the number of beds in each unit. Except for the number of visits by doctors between the semi-ICU and ward, as the severity of patients increases, the number of visits by healthcare workers per patient increases with a p<0.05, which is statistically significant. ICU, intensive care unit.

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  Fig. 3. Mean number of visits per day for each unit of ward. Ward 1 has 20 beds, while ward 2 has five beds. Since the p-value for the number of visits by doctors and nurses between wards is greater than 0.05, there is no statistically significant difference in the mean number of visits between wards 1 and 2. This indicates that they were the same despite the differences in the number of patients.

Reference

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