Cardiac surgeons' concerns, perceptions, and responses during the COVID-19 pandemic
Author Department
Surgery
Document Type
Article, Peer-reviewed
Publication Date
6-2021
Abstract
Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on health care and cardiac surgery. We report cardiac surgeons' concerns, perceptions, and responses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: A detailed survey was sent to recruit participating adult cardiac surgery centers in North America. Data regarding cardiac surgeons' perceptions and changes in practice were analyzed.
Results: Our study comprises 67 institutions with diverse geographic distribution across North America. Nurses were most likely to be redeployed (88%), followed by advanced care practitioners (69%), trainees (28%), and surgeons (25%). Examining surgeon concerns in regard to COVID-19, they were most worried with exposing their family to COVID-19 (81%), followed by contracting COVID-19 (68%), running out of personal protective equipment (PPE) (28%), and hospital resources (28%). In terms of PPE conservation strategies among users of N95 respirators, nearly half were recycling via decontamination with ultraviolet light (49%), followed by sterilization with heat (13%) and at home or with other modalities (13%). Reuse of N95 respirators for 1 day (22%), 1 week (21%) or 1 month (6%) was reported. There were differences in adoption of methods to conserve N95 respirators based on institutional pandemic phase and COVID-19 burden, with higher COVID-19 burden institutions more likely to resort to PPE conservation strategies.
Conclusions: The present study demonstrates the impact of COVID-19 on North American cardiac surgeons. Our study should stimulate further discussions to identify optimal solutions to improve workforce preparedness for subsequent surges, as well as facilitate the navigation of future healthcare crises.
Keywords: cardiovascular research.
Recommended Citation
Luc JGY, Ad N, Nguyen TC; COVID-19 North American Cardiac Surgery Survey Working Group Collaborators, Arora RC, Balkhy HH, Bender EM, Bethencourt DM, Bisleri G, Boyd D, Chu MWA, de la Cruz KI, DeAnda A, Engelman DT, Farkas EA, Fedoruk LM, Fiocco M, Forcillo J, Fradet G, Fremes SE, Gammie JS, Geirsson A, Gerdisch MW, Girard LN, Kaiser CA, Kaneko T, Kent WDT, Khabbaz KR, Khoynezhad A, Kiaii B, Lee R, Legare JF, Lehr EJ, MacArthur RGG, McCarthy PM, Mehall JR, Merrill WH, Moon MR, Ouzounian M, Peltz M, Perrault LP, Preventza O, Ramchandani M, Ramlawi B, Salenger R, Sekela ME, Sellke FW, Stulak JM, Sutter FP, Timek TA, Whitman G, Williams JB, Wong DR, Yanagawa B, Ye J, Zeigler SM. Cardiac surgeons' concerns, perceptions, and responses during the COVID-19 pandemic. J Card Surg. 2021 Jun 12. doi: 10.1111/jocs.15681. Epub ahead of print.
PMID
34118080