Operations Transition to Mitigate COVID-19 on an Interventional Radiology Service

The coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19) started in China in December 2019. Countries around the world remain affected several months later. Despite attempts to limit dissemination by social distancing, the United States currently has more total infections than any other nation on earth.[1] At one point in New York City, COVID-specific admission surges reached 350 patients/100,000 population, stressing the limits of staff and resources.[2]

Mitigating in-hospital spread by preparedness has been a central topic of other reviews for diagnostic radiology departments.[3] [4] The structure of interventional radiology (IR) services introduces additional variables increasing the potential risk of infection for IR team members. In China, 3.8% of all patients infected with COVID-19 were healthcare workers, with 14.8% of infected workers reaching critical status.[5] The symptoms from COVID-19 are similar to those seen during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV) pandemic in 2002. The primary SARS-CoV treatment center in Korea performed IR procedures in 13.6% of the admitted patients in their center.[6] Given the high incidence of disease and volume of admissions related to COVID-19 in the United States, IRs are performing procedures on infected patients. Our division was tasked with engineering operational adaptations to mitigate and minimize risks to inpatients, outpatients, and staff. We report the adjustments in our practice to facilitate preparedness in IR.

• References

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