COVID (Co-Operative Vascular Intervention Disease) Team of Greater Philadelphia

Calligaro, Keith D.; Dougherty, Matthew J.; Maloni, Krystal; Vani, Kunal; Troutman, Douglas A.

We established the COVID (Co-OperativeVascularInterventionDisease) Team of Greater Philadelphia because national guidelines may not apply to different geographic areas of the United States due to varying penetrance of the virus. On April 10, 2020, a ten-question survey regarding issues and strategies dealing with COVID-19 was e-mailed to 58 VSs in the Greater Philadelphia area. Fifty-four VSs in 18 surgical groups covering 28 hospitals responded. All groups accepted transfers due to continued ICU bed availability. Thirteen groups were asked to “re-deploy” if the need arose to function outside of the usual duties of a VS. None imposed age restrictions regarding older VSs continuing clinical hospital work. The majority restricted non-invasive vascular laboratory studies to those studies where findings might mandate intervention within 2-3 weeks, restricted dialysis access operations to urgent revisions of arteriovenous fistulas (AVFs)/ grafts that were failing or had ulcerations, converted from in-person to telemedicine clinic interactions, and experienced moderate/severe anxiety or fear about personal COVID-19 exposure in the hospital. The majority of VSs in the Philadelphia area have dramatically adjusted their clinical practices before the COVID-19 crisis reached peak levels experienced in other metropolitan areas.