Investigating the Role of the Covid-19 Epidemic on the Burden of Those who Refer to the Clinical Laboratory of Amir al-Momenin Hospital in Sistan Region

Cost management and reduction in healthcare resource utilization while maintaining the quality of laboratory services and making sure of the continued provision of servicesare one of the basic challenges facing hospital managers under COVID-19 pandemic conditions. Hospital managers have to control laboratory performance, identify the bottlenecks, and finally decide which program is necessary for reducing inappropriate utilization of laboratory resources and increasing hospital revenue. Accordingly, study of the workload in clinical laboratories provides them with valuable information to develop and implement policies that improve laboratory performance.

This applied cross-sectional research followed a descriptive-analytical method for analyzing the workload of the clinical laboratory of Amirul Mominin Ali Zabol Hospital in Sistan region in order to investigate the volume of referrals in two years before and after the start of the epidemic. Covid-19 and determining the causes of possible changes has been done.

The research findings indicated that the number of inpatients referring to the hospital laboratory has decreased by 18.7% and outpatients by 49.7%, 2 years into the Covid–19 pandemic in comparison with the same period before it, and the number of tests has decreased by 0.025% in the inpatient ward and by 55.13% in the outpatient ward compared to the pre-epidemic period, on the other hand, the average number of test for each person has increased by 21.09% in the inpatient ward and has decreased by 8.9% in the outpatient ward.

Based on research results, the Covid–19 pandemic affects the workload of clinical laboratories. Cancellation of elective hospitalization cases, decrease of patients' visits to the hospital, closure of non-COVID wards and clinics, reduction in accidents, increases in economic problems, and uncertainty on the quality of services were among the mentioned factors that decreased the number of patients visiting the hospital.