Effective health systems facing pandemic crisis: lessons from COVID-19 in Europe for next emergencies

Purpose The investigation goal is the analysis of the relation between healthcare expenditures and other resources, and COVID-19 fatality rates among European countries to design effective health policies for crisis management. Design/methodology/approach Research methodology is based on descriptive statistics and various parametric methods, also including a linear model of regression to analyze basic relationships of variables under study. Findings Results show that a lower COVID-19 fatality rate is associated with higher levels of health expenditure (% GDP), of healthcare expenditure per capita, health expenditure in preventive care (% GDP), hospitals per million inhabitants, physicians, nurses, hospital beds and curative acute care beds per 1,000 inhabitants. Regression analysis shows that a 1% increase in healthcare expenditures per capita of countries, it reduces the level of COVID-19 fatality rate by 0.74%. In fact, many countries in Eastern Europe with low healthcare expenditures per capita in 2019 (e.g., Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland, Latvia, Slovakia, Lithuania, etc.), they have experienced high COVID-19 fatality rates. Instead, a lot of countries in Western Europe, with high healthcare expenditures per capita, such as Germany, Denmark, Austria, and the Netherlands, they had resilient health systems to face pandemic crisis and lower COVID-19 fatality rates. Practical implications These findings suggest strategies of systematic and continuous investments in healthcare, medical technologies, and ICT infrastructures to support effective health policy of crisis management in countries to face future pandemic crisis and other emergencies in society. Originality/value The explanation of critical role of high health expenditure (% GDP) and healthcare expenditure per capita to support robust health systems that bolster the resilience in nations to face health emergencies and worldwide crises.