Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on private hospitals in Brazil

Visual Abstract

In Brief

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted hospital performance. To assess its effects on hospital indicators, we studied a sample of over 100 facilities. These facilities are members of a private hospital association, considered quality institutions with higher-tier socioeconomic patients, and are mostly financed by private insurers. We utilized publicly available data for 2020, the year when the pandemic effect was most acute

Highlights

Sanitary restriction measures had a strong impact on usual performance indicators from a selected group of private hospitals in Brazil.

P۪۪regnancies and deliveries continued to constitute an important proportion of hospital admissions because they did not depend on external restrictions.

H۪۪ospital costs increased due to increased utilization of more expensive Personal Protection Equipment (due to lack of availability or much higher demand).

Article extracted from the master’s dissertation presented to the Master´s Program in Management for Competitiveness at Fundação Getulio Vargas , São Paulo, SP, in 2022.

ABSTRACT

Objective

To analyze the operational and/or financial impacts of regulatory measures implemented by the National Agency for Supplementary Health and government health departments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic on a group of 118 private hospitals affiliated with the National Association of Private Hospitals.

Methods

This study used a quantitative methodological design of descriptive, cross-sectional, and retrospective studies, utilizing secondary data provided by the National Agency for Supplementary Health.

Results

There was a -20.1% reduction in hospital admissions and hospital occupancy rate and a decrease of -4.4 percentage points in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization margins. Additionally, the average length of hospital stay increased by +0.5, while total expenses for hospital leaves and total net revenue for hospital leaves increased by +39.4% and +23.6%, respectively. Comparing the participation of the different International Classification of Diseases, according to ICD-10 in 2019 and 2020, revealed the following variations in percentage points of hospitalizations. Hospitalizations for infectious diseases (including COVID-19), treatment of neoplasms, and pregnancy increased by +2.1, +2.4, and +1.2, respectively. However, hospitalizations for respiratory diseases decreased by -4.1.

Conclusion

The most critical period of the pandemic required the redirection of activities to concentrate efforts on caring for COVID-19 cases. This situation highlighted the non-prioritization of primary care, as many problems presented by patients not affected by COVID-19 had to be referred to emergency services when and if appropriate.

Pandemics; COVID-19; Coronavirus infections; Hospitals; private; Cost of illness; Health care costs; Brazilian Health Surveillance Agency; Brazil