Purpose: As it becomes difficult to move between countries due to the spread of COVID-19, it can be expected that the number of foreign patients entering Korea for treatment will decrease significantly. The purpose of this study is to investigate the current status of hospitalization of foreign patients over the past 6 years and the impact of COVID-19.
Methods: The sex, age, nationality, and histories of foreign patients who visited the International Medical Center from 2016 to 2021 were collected. A total of 25,569 subjects were analyzed.
Results: For six years from 2016 to 2021, the number of foreign patients increased steadily before COVID-19 but decreased significantly after COVID-19. Overall, it was analyzed that the average annual growth rate of foreign patients from 2016 to 2019 was about 6%. However, due to the impact of COVID-19, the number of patients in 2020 decreased by about 57% compared to the previous year and by about 1% in 2021 compared to the previous year.
Conclusion: It is believed that the decrease in foreign patients in a situation such as Corona 19 is due not only to the risk of infection, but also to the difficulty of moving between countries. In other words, it can be said that the driving force for the movement due to the medical skill gap still exists. Therefore, if this situation improves, it is judged that the phenomenon of moving abroad in search of medical care is inevitable.