In the eye of the storm: A quantitative and qualitative account of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on dutch home healthcare
Open accessAbstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected healthcare delivery across the world. However, little is known about COVID-19's impact on home healthcare (HHC) services. Our study aimed to: (1) describe the changes in volume and intensity of HHC services and the crisis management policies implemented; (2) understand the responses and the experiences of HHC staff and clients. We conducted an explanatory sequential mixed methods study. First, retrospective client data (N = 43,495) from four Dutch HHC organizations was analyzed. Second, four focus group interviews were conducted for the strategic, tactical, operational, and client levels of the four HHC organizations. Our results showed that both the supply of and demand for Dutch HHC decreased considerably, especially during the first wave (March-June 2020). This was due to factors such as fear of infection, anticipation of a high demand for COVID-19-related care from the hospital sector, and lack of personal protective equipment. The top-down management style initially applied made way for a more bottom-up approach in the second wave (July 2020-January 2021). Experiences vary between levels and waves. HHC organizations need more responsive protocols to prevent such radical scaling-back of HHC in future crises, and interventions to help HHC professionals cope with crisis situations.
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Home care services rebounded to historical highs.
“Personal care and therapies for persons with dementia were significantly interrupted, although, home care services rebounded to historical highs [8,34].”
From Towards defining quality in home care for persons living with dementia (2022) · cites this paper as [34]
Personal care and therapies for persons with dementia were significantly interrupted during the early phase of the pandemic.
“Personal care and therapies for persons with dementia were significantly interrupted, although, home care services rebounded to historical highs [8,34].”
From Towards defining quality in home care for persons living with dementia (2022) · cites this paper as [34]
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References 21 · Cited by 10
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- [6]Kroneman M. Boerma W. van den Berg M. Groenewegen P. de Jong J. van Ginneken E. Health Systems in Transition: The Netherlands European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies Brussels, Belgium 2016 27467715
- [12]Creswell J.W. Plano Clark V.L. Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research SAGE Publishing Thousand Oaks, CA, USA 2006 58 88
- Authors
- van den Bulck, A. O. E., de Korte, M. H., Metzelthin, S. F., Elissen, A. M. J., Everink, I. H. J., Ruwaard, D., & Mikkers, M. C.
- Affiliations
- Department of Health Services Research, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Care and Public Health Research Institute (CAPHRI), Maastricht University, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands
- Department of Economics, Tilburg University, 5037 AB Tilburg, The Netherlands
- Maastricht University (NL)
- Tilburg University (NL)
- ORCID
- Venue
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2022-02-16
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 2252
- ISSN
- 1660-4601 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8872342
- OpenAlex
- W4213168140
- Cited by
- 10
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 4
- FWCI
- 0.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Research portal (Tilburg University) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Publications (Maastricht University) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Research Publications (Maastricht University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › COVID-19 and healthcare impacts
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Telemedicine and Telehealth Implementation
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Geriatric Care and Nursing Homes
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, home health care, crisis management, personal protective equipment shortage, fear of infection, top-down management, bottom-up management, employee experience, customer experience, pandemic waves
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Delivery of Health Care, Humans, Retrospective Studies, Pandemics
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