COVID-19: A Time Like No Other in (the Department of) Neurological Surgery

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has disrupted lives and indelibly impacted the practice of medicine since emerging as a pandemic in March 2020. For neurosurgery departments throughout the United States, the pandemic has created unique challenges across subspecialties in devising methods of triage, workflow, and operating room safety. Located in New York City, at the early epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis, the Weill Cornell Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery was disrupted and challenged in many ways, requiring adaptations in clinical operations, workforce management, research, and education. Through our department's collective experience, we offer a glimpse at how our faculty and administrators overcame obstacles, and transformed in the process, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; Education; Neurosurgery; New York City; Pandemic; Redeployment.

Figure 1

Surgical case volume at Weill Cornell Medicine Neurological Surgery during the initial surge of the pandemic in New York City. Elective surgeries were stopped in mid-March to help preserve personal protective equipment and to make operating rooms available as interim intensive care units. Volume began to recover by early May but did not approach normal levels until much later in the year. Data do not include interventional neuroradiology procedures. OR, operating room.

Figure 2

Trends in in-person versus telehealth appointments at Weill Cornell Medicine Neurological Surgery during the initial surge of the pandemic in New York City. The number of in-person visits fell precipitously starting the week of March 16, 2020, and stayed near zero until early May. Video visits, previously offered only in a small pilot program, filled some of the gap. Televisits include both video and telephone appointments.