Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Organization of Healthcare in France

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, which began spreading on January 24, 2020 in France, hasrequired a profound and rapid reorganization of the health system, based in particular oninternal hospital reorganizations of front-line establishments, deprogramming ofnon-urgent activities, and transfers of non-covid19 patients to 2nd line facilities.Beyond the immediate impact on the management of patients infected with COVID-19, thisreorganization may have reduced the capacity of management for patients requiring urgentor semi-urgent intervention, or may have postponed some necessary care. The isolation ofpatients at home may also have resulted in lower compliance to therapy and medicaltreatments and may have contributed to decompensation.At the end of this crisis, the different organizational responses in France should beevaluated to identify the consequences and the areas for improvement in order to beprepared for future exceptional health situations. This investigation on healthcaresystems confronted to an exceptional health situation thus seeks to determine if theprofound reorganizations implemented during this health crisis have indirect effects onthe performance of care, in particular if there is a destabilization of the care systems(emergency, semi-emergency and chronic), a loss of chance for the patients and ifinnovative care paths have emerged.