COVID-19’s impact on hospital stays, mortality, and readmissions for poverty-related diseases, noncommunicable diseases, and injury groups in Thailand

Aims: This study aims to compare the trends in the quality of hospital care for WHO’s three disease groups pre-, during, and post-COVID-19 pandemic peak in Thailand. Methods: The study utilized existing hospital admission data from the Thai Health Information Portal (THIP) database, covering the period from 2017 to 2022. We categorized WHO’s three disease groups: poverty-related, noncommunicable, and injury groups using the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)—10 of initial admission of patients, and we analyzed three major outcomes: prolonged (≥ 90th percentile) length of stay (LOS), hospital mortality, and readmission pre-, during, and post-COVID-19 pandemic peak. Relative weight (RW) of hospital reimbursements was used as a surrogate measure of the severity of the diseases. Results: The average prolonged LOS of patients with poverty disease pre-, during, and post-COVID-19 pandemic peak were 7.1%, 10.8%, 9.05%, respectively. Respective hospital mortality rates were 5.02%, 6.22%, 6.05% and readmission were 6.98/1,000, 6.16/1,000, 5.43/1,000, respectively. For non-communicable diseases, the respective proportions in the prolonged LOS were 9.0%, 9.12%, and 7.58%, with respective hospital mortality being 10.65%, 8.86%, 6.62%, and readmissions were 17.79/1,000, 13.94/1,000, 13.19/1,000, respectively. The respective prolonged LOS for injuries were 8.75%, 8.55%, 8.25%. Meanwhile, respective hospital mortality were 4.95%, 4.05%, 3.20%, and readmissions were 1.99/1,000, 1.60/1,000, 1.48/1,000, respectively. The RW analysis reveals diverse impacts on resource utilization and costs. Most poverty-related and noncommunicable diseases indicate increased resource requirements and associated costs, except for HIV/AIDS and diabetes mellitus, showing mixed trends. In injuries, road traffic accidents consistently decrease resource needs and costs, but suicide cases show mixed trends. Conclusions: COVID-19 had a more serious impact, especially prolonged LOS and hospital mortality for poverty-related diseases more than noncommunicable diseases and injuries.