Keeping the team together: Transformation of an inpatient neurology service at an urban, multi-ethnic, safety net hospital in New York City during COVID-19

• Published in: Clinical neurology and neurosurgery Vol. 197; p. 106156
• Main Authors: Lord, Aaron S., Lombardi, Nicole, Evans, Katherine, Deveaux, Dewi, Douglas, Elizabeth, Mansfield, Laura, Zakin, Elina, Jakubowska-Sadowska, Katarzyna, Grayson, Kammi, Omari, Mirza, Yaghi, Shadi, Humbert, Kelley, Sanger, Matt, Kim, Sun, Boffa, Michael, Szuchumacher, Mariana, Jongeling, Amy, Vazquez, Blanca, Berberi, Nisida, Kwon, Patrick, Locascio, Gianna, Chervinsky, Alexander, Frontera, Jennifer, Zhou, Ting, Kahn, D. Ethan, Abou-Fayssal, Nada
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.10.2020; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Betacoronavirus; Coronavirus Infections - therapy; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Critical care; Critical Care - organization & administration; Electroencephalography - methods; Epilepsy; Hospital Departments - organization & administration; Hospitals; Hospitals, Urban; Humans; Intensive care; Internal medicine; Internship and Residency - organization & administration; Medicine; Neurohospitalist; Neurology; Neurology - organization & administration; Neurology administration; Neurology residency; Neuroscience Nursing - organization & administration; New York City; Nursing care; Pandemics; Patients; Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; Pneumonia, Viral - therapy; Rehabilitation; Safety-net Providers; SARS-CoV-2; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Stroke; Teams; Tertiary Care Centers; Workforce planning; New York City; United States > US; New York City New York; COVID-19; Stroke; Neurology administration; Neurohospitalist; Neurology residency
• ISSN: 0303-8467; 1872-6968; 1872-6968
• DOI: 10.1016/j.clineuro.2020.106156

•Neurology teams can care for patients with COVID-19 in lieu of being redeployed.•Maintaining team structures has advantages to redeployment during pandemic surges.•Streamlining neurological services increases capacity to care for COVID-19 patients. The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically affected the operations of New York City hospitals during March and April of 2020. This article describes the transformation of a neurology division at a 450-bed tertiary care hospital in a multi-ethnic community in Brooklyn during this initial wave of COVID-19. In lieu of a mass redeployment of staff to internal medicine teams, we report a novel method for a neurology division to participate in a hospital’s expansion of care for patients with COVID-19 while maintaining existing team structures and their inherent supervisory and interpersonal support mechanisms.