Ten-year retrospective comparative analysis of inpatient and outpatient care utilization patterns in Polish healthcare

Introduction and purpose: Ambulatory healthcare plays a crucial role in the overall healthcare system, providing a range of services that are designed to be delivered on an outpatient basis. Offering preventive care, health education, managing chronic diseases and non-life-threatening urgent situations may alleviate the burden on hospitals and provide high-quality, time- and cost-effective healthcare system. In this study authors conduct a retrospective comparative analysis of inpatient and outpatient healthcare trends based on data provided by the Central Statistics Office of Poland for a ten-year period between 2012 and 2022 Material and methods: This retrospective study was conducted using publicly available healthcare data sourced from databases provided by the Central Statistics Office of Poland. Results: The analysis revealed a significant increase in the average annual number of outpatient visits per person (6.69 ± 0.39 vs. 7,70 ± 0.56; p < 0.001) and a decrease in annual hospitalizations per person (0.20 ± 0.02 vs. 0.18 ± 0.02; p < 0.001) during the past decade. In addition, significant increase in the annual number of visits per person to both specialists (2.66 ± 0.36 vs. 2.99 ± 0.55; p < 0.001) and general practitioners (4.04 ± 0.26 vs. 4.71 ± 0.34; p < 0.001) were noted. Noteworthy, in Mazowieckie Province data revealed a distinct healthcare service utilization pattern with more frequent specialist care and less frequent primary care outpatient visits in comparison with other Polish provinces. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a substantial decrease in both hospitalization rates (0.19 ± 0.02 vs. 0.15 ± 0.01; p < 0.001) and outpatient visits (4.57 ± 0.25 vs. 4.13 ± 0.26; p < 0.001) per person has been noted across whole country. Conclusions: This study indicates a significant shift in healthcare utilization patterns towards outpatient services, and a corresponding decline in hospitalization rates during the past ten years across Poland.