Abstract
BackgroundDuring the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, psychiatric hospitals all over the world had to adapt their services to the prevailing governmental regulations. As a consequence, home office use and telepsychiatry boomed.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential of home office use, its adoption, and the association of home office use with employees’ mental health in a large psychiatric university hospital in Switzerland.MethodsWe obtained and analyzed home office implementation and use data from the psychiatric university hospital’s information technology services. We also conducted a cross-sectional web-based survey to assess the employees’ attitudes toward the clinic’s crisis management during the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. Part of this web-based survey consisted of questions about home office use between March and June 2020, attitudes toward home office implementation, and mental health. Three mental health measures assessed depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire [PHQ]–2), anxiety (General Anxiety Disorder [GAD]–2), and stress factors (stress module of the PHQ-D); a cut-off score ≥3 was used for the PHQ-2 and GAD-2.ResultsOf the 200 participating employees, 69 reported that they had worked from home at least partially (34.5%). Home office use differed significantly across professional groups (χ162=72.72, P≤.001, n=200). Employees experienced neither depressive symptoms (mean 0.76, SD 1.14) nor anxiety (mean 0.70, SD 1.03). The employees reported minor psychosocial stressors (mean 2.83, SD 2.92). The number of reported stress factors varied significantly across groups with different levels of home office use (χ42=9.72, P=.04).ConclusionsIn general, home office implementation appears to be feasible for large psychiatric hospitals, however, it is not equally feasible for all professional groups. Professional groups that require personal contact with patients and technical or manual tasks must work onsite. Further evaluation of home office use in psychiatric hospitals up to the development of clinics that function merely online will follow in future research. The situation created by the COVID-19 pandemic served as a stepping stone to promote home office use and should be used to improve employees’ work–life balance, to save employers costs and foster other benefits.
Highlights
Looking back on 2020, COVID-19 had the world firmly in its grip, with over 80 million confirmed cases and more than 1.8 million associated deaths [1]
In Switzerland, a national lockdown was declared shortly after the first confirmed cases in the country [2]; the general population was obliged to stay at home, shops were closed, and employees were urged to work from home, with only a few exceptions
The question arises—how will large psychiatric hospitals successfully implement home offices during the COVID-19 pandemic? We explored this issue by investigating the following research questions: How did home office use change over the course of the year 2020? Which employees were able to work in home office? How did the implementation of home office work from the employees’ viewpoint? Is home office use associated with the mental health of employees?
Summary
Looking back on 2020, COVID-19 had the world firmly in its grip, with over 80 million confirmed cases and more than 1.8 million associated deaths [1]. Governments all over the world imposed major restrictions on the general population such as face masks requirements, social distancing requirements, and general lockdowns. Health professionals and mental health professionals reported increased distress during the pandemic, especially when facing COVID-19 infections at their workplace [3,5,6,14]. It was difficult to offer treatment within the scope of the prevailing governmental measures (such as social distancing). This problem had to be solved, practically overnight, in psychiatric hospitals around the world. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, psychiatric hospitals all over the world had to adapt their services to the prevailing governmental regulations.
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