Orthopaedic Systems Response to and Return from the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons for Future Crisis Management

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has become the dominant health-care issue of this generation and has reached every corner of the health-care delivery spectrum. Our 3 orthopaedic departments enacted a response to the COVID-19 pandemic within our organizations. We discuss our health-care systems' response to the outbreak and offer discussion for the recovery of the orthopaedic service line within large health-care systems.

Fig. 1

Double curve during the SARS outbreak in Toronto in 2003. Illustration of the double curve, or second wave, of infection that can occur in pandemics if appropriate measures are not adhered to when the threat of the pandemic is lessening. (Republished, with permission of The National Academies Press, from: SARS: lessons from Toronto, Low DE, in: Learning from SARS: preparing for the next disease outbreak: workshop summary, Institute of Medicine [U.S.] Forum on Microbial Threats; Knobler S, Mahmoud A, Lemon S, Mack A, Sivitz L, Oberholtzer K, editors. 2004; permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.)