Abstract
The outbreak of the COVID-19 disease, spreading all around the world and causing a worldwide pandemic, has lead to the collapse of the health systems of the most affected countries. Due to the ease of transmission, early prevention measures are proved to be fundamental to control the pandemic and, hence, the saturation of the health systems. Given the difficulty of obtaining characteristics of these systems of different countries and regions, it is necessary to define indicators based on basic information that enable the assessment of the evolution of the impact of a disease in a health system along with fair comparisons among different ones. This present paper introduces the Health Sufficiency Indicator (), in its accumulated and daily versions. This indicator measures the additional pressure that a health care system has to deal with due to a pandemic. Hence, it allows to evaluate the capacity of a health system to give response to the corresponding needs arising from a pandemic and to compare the evolution of the disease among different regions. In addition, the Potential Occupancy Ratio () in both its hospital ward bed and ICU bed versions is here introduced to asses the impact of the pandemic in the capacity of hospitals. These indicators and other well-known ones are applied to track the evolution of the impact of the disease on the Spanish health system during the first wave of the pandemic, both on national and regional levels. An international comparison among the most affected countries is also performed.
Highlights
Data, like respirators, save lives, but only if used properly
The health systems of most of the countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic have collapsed due to the extremely high incidence
This paper has presented objective indicators on the added pressure on a health system due to a pandemic situation
Summary
Health and many other aspects of our lives, indicators and indexes are used to capture a complex reality in numbers Thanks to these indicators, it is possible to study the evolution of many phenomena and make valid comparisons. Domestic Product (GDP), the unemployment rate or the risk premium are used to define and adjust economic measures, health indicators are used to design, evaluate and refine public health policies. These indicators enable to know the diverse and changing reality of each territory and, to choose with precision the moment and location to implement, for example, the different phases of de-escalation of the containment measures aimed at stopping the spread of the Sars-CoV-2 virus.
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