Co-Operative Vascular Intervention Disease (COVID) Team of Greater Philadelphia

• Published in: Journal of vascular surgery Vol. 72; no. 4; pp. 1178 - 1183
• Main Authors: Calligaro, Keith D., Dougherty, Matthew J., Maloni, Krystal, Vani, Kunal, Troutman, Douglas A., Pineda, Danielle, Sullivan, Theodore, Eisenberg, Josh, Lotto, Christine, Rao, Atul, Lombardi, Joseph, Tran, Jose, Batista, Philip, Kahn, Mark, Sajja, Sai, Chizea, JohnPaul, Choudry, Rashad, Deutsche, Evan, Awad, Nadia, Ilano, Aaron, Manis, George, Dimuzio, Paul, Abai, Babek, Salvatore, Dawn, Jackson, Ben, Wang, Grace, Foley, Paul, Dermody, Meghan, Affuso, John, O’Connor, Thomas, Comeau, Jay, Woratyla, Steve, Uribe, Alex, DiGiovanni, Vince, Meisner, Robert, Werter, Chris, Guzzo, James, Ju, Mila, McCullough, James, Flanagan, John, Ryan, Sean, Patton, Gerry, Hayes, Dan, Calligaro, Keith, Dougherty, Matthew, Troutman, Douglas, Pavillard, Edward, Amin, Ali, Zheng, Hong, Luo, Robert, Coffey, Jim, Lamb, Kathleen, Schmieder, Frank, VanBemmelen, Paul, Dhanisetty, Ravi, Golarz, Scott, Oresayna, Lawrence, Andrew, Dean, Lieb, Mike
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.10.2020; by the Society for Vascular Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc
• Subjects: Betacoronavirus - pathogenicity; Cooperative Behavior; Coronavirus Infections - diagnosis; Coronavirus Infections - epidemiology; Coronavirus Infections - therapy; Coronavirus Infections - virology; Covid virus affecting vascular surgeons; COVID-19; COVID-19 pandemic and vascular disease; Delivery of Health Care, Integrated - organization & administration; Emergency Service, Hospital - organization & administration; Health Care Surveys; Health Services Needs and Demand - organization & administration; Host-Pathogen Interactions; Humans; Infection Control - organization & administration; Interdisciplinary Communication; Occupational Health; Pandemics; Patient Care Team - organization & administration; Patient Safety; Philadelphia - epidemiology; Pneumonia, Viral - diagnosis; Pneumonia, Viral - epidemiology; Pneumonia, Viral - therapy; Pneumonia, Viral - virology; Regional Health Planning - organization & administration; SARS-CoV-2; Vascular Surgical Procedures - organization & administration; Philadelphia; Covid virus affecting vascular surgeons
• ISSN: 0741-5214; 1097-6809
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jvs.2020.05.058

We established the Co-Operative Vascular Intervention Disease (COVID) Team of Greater Philadelphia because national guidelines may not apply to different geographic areas of the United States owing to varying penetrance of the virus. On April 10, 2020, a 10-question survey regarding issues and strategies dealing with COVID-19 was e-mailed to 58 vascular surgeons (VSs) in the Greater Philadelphia area. Fifty-four VSs in 18 surgical groups covering 28 hospitals responded. All groups accepted transfers because of continued availability of intensive care unit beds. Thirteen groups were asked to “redeploy” if the need arose to function outside of the usual duties of a VS. None imposed age restrictions regarding older VSs continuing clinical hospital work. The majority restricted noninvasive vascular laboratory studies to those studies for which findings might mandate intervention within 2 or 3 weeks, restricted dialysis access operations to urgent revisions of arteriovenous fistulas or grafts that were failing or had ulcerations, converted from in-person to telemedicine clinic interactions, and experienced moderate-severe anxiety or fear about personal COVID-19 exposure in the hospital. The majority of VSs in the Philadelphia area dramatically adjusted their clinical practices before the COVID-19 crisis reached peak levels experienced in other metropolitan areas.