ArticleHealth policy (Amsterdam, Netherlands)2022
A comparison of health system responses to COVID-19 in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania in 2020.
Article in Health policy (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 42 citations in OpenAlex.
- Challenges faced by health policymakers responding to COVID-19 in remote communities in Northwest Territories, Canada.Health promotion international · 2025Article
- Adverse working conditions in Romanian out-of-hours primary care (OOH-PC): an interview study.Human resources for health · 2025Article
- Global, regional, and national trends in maternal hemorrhage, 1992-2021: a hierarchical cluster and age-period-cohort analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021 and projections to 2036.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Excess respiratory, circulatory, neoplasm, and other mortality rates during the Covid-19 pandemic in the EU and their implications.Epidemiology and infection · 2025Article
- Blockchain adoption challenges in the healthcare sector: a waste management perspective.Operations management research : advancing practice through research · 2025Article
- How physical multimorbidity affected the mental health and healthcare utilization of patients with severe mental illness during the COVID-19 pandemic and earthquakes.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Responding to COVID-19: an exploration of EU country responses and directions for further research.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Strategies to strengthen the resilience of primary health care in the COVID-19 pandemic: a scoping review.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- The Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Hospitalizations for Ambulatory Care-Sensitive Conditions in Split-Dalmatia County, Croatia.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2024Article
- SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: A Comparison Between the Epidemiological Situation in Greece and Romania.Cureus · 2024Article
- Relative Risk of Death in Bulgarian Cancer Patients during the Initial Waves of the COVID-19 Pandemic.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Psychological Predictors of COVID-19-Related Anxiety in Vulnerable Groups.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2023Article
- COVID-19 and healthcare worker mental well-being: Comparative case studies on interventions in six countries.Health policy (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2023Review
- Consumption Behaviour towards Branded Functional Beverages among Gen Z in Post-COVID-19 Times: Exploring Antecedents and Mediators.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Article
- The COVID-19 pandemic posed many dilemmas for policymakers, which sometimes resulted in unprecedented decision-making.Israel journal of health policy research · 2023Article
- Natural multi-hazard risk perception and educational insights among Geography and Tourism students and graduates amid the Covid-19 pandemic.International journal of disaster risk reduction : IJDRR · 2023Article
- Economic Burden of Cervical Cancer in Bulgaria.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Changes in substance use and engagement in gaming/gambling in persons with severe mental illness during the COVID-19 pandemic and earthquakes: a community study in two points.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- The Psychological Well-Being and Civic Engagement of Polish, Croatian and Lithuanian Academic Students during COVID-19 Outbreak.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors at 7 institutions in 7 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This article compares the health system responses to COVID-19 in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania from February 2020 until the end of 2020. It explores similarities and differences between the three countries, building primarily on the methodology and content compiled in the COVID-19 Health System Response Monitor (HSRM). We find that all three countries entered the COVID-19 crisis with common problems, including workforce shortages and underdeveloped and underutilized preventive and primary care. The countries reacted swiftly to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, declaring a state of emergency in March 2020 and setting up new governance mechanisms. The initial response benefited from a centralized approach and high levels of public trust but proved to be only a short-term solution. Over time, governance became dominated by political and economic considerations, communication to the public became contradictory, and levels of public trust declined dramatically. The three countries created additional bed capacity for the treatment of COVID-19 patients in the first wave, but a greater challenge was to ensure a sufficient supply of qualified health workers. New digital and remote tools for the provision of non-COVID-19 health services were introduced or used more widely, with an increase in telephone or online consultations and a simplification of administrative procedures. However, the provision and uptake of non-COVID-19 health services was still affected negatively by the pandemic. Overall, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed pre-existing health system and governance challenges in the three countries, leading to a large number of preventable deaths.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.