Objective: To meet hospital preparedness for the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and ACR recommended delay of all nonemergent tests and elective procedures. The purpose of this article is to report our experience for rescheduling nonemergent imaging and procedures during the pandemic at our tertiary academic institution.Methods: We rescheduled the nonemergent imaging and procedures in our hospitals and outpatient centers from March 16 to May 4, 2020. We created a tiered priority system to reschedule patients for whom imaging could be delayed with minimal clinical impact. The radiologists performed detailed chart reviews for decision making. We conducted daily virtual huddles with discussion of rescheduling strategies and issue tracking.Results: Using a snapshot during the rescheduling period, there was a 53.4% decrease in imaging volume during the period of March 16 to April 15, 2020, compared with the same time period in 2019. The total number of imaging studies decreased from 38,369 in 2019 to 17,891 in 2020 during this period. Although we saw the largest reduction in outpatient imaging (72.3%), there was also a significant decrease in inpatient (40.5%) and emergency department (48.9%) imaging volumes.Discussion: The use of multiple communication channels was critical in relaying the information to all our stakeholders, patients, referring physicians, and the radiology workforce. Teamwork, quick adoption, and adaptation of changing strategies was important given the fluidity of the situation.
PURPOSE: Our aim was to study the association between abnormal findings on chest and brain imaging in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and neurologic symptoms. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this retrospective, international multicenter study, we reviewed the electronic medical records and imaging of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 from March 3, 2020, to June 25, 2020. Our inclusion criteria were patients diagnosed with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection with acute neurologic manifestations and available chest CT and brain imaging. The 5 lobes of the lungs were individually scored on a scale of 0-5 (0 corresponded to no involvement and 5 corresponded to .75% involvement). A CT lung severity score was determined as the sum of lung involvement, ranging from 0 (no involvement) to 25 (maximum involvement). RESULTS: A total of 135 patients met the inclusion criteria with 132 brain CT, 36 brain MR imaging, 7 MRA of the head and neck, and 135 chest CT studies. Compared with 86 (64%) patients without acute abnormal findings on neuroimaging, 49 (36%) patients with these findings had a significantly higher mean CT lung severity score (9.9 versus 5.8, P , .001). These patients were more likely to present with ischemic stroke (40 [82%] versus 11 [13%], P , .0001) and were more likely to have either ground-glass opacities or consolidation (46 [94%] versus 73 [84%], P ¼ .01) in the lungs. A threshold of the CT lung severity score of .8 was found to be 74% sensitive and 65% specific for acute abnormal findings on neuroimaging. The neuroimaging hallmarks of these patients were acute ischemic infarct (28%), intracranial hemorrhage (10%) including microhemorrhages (19%), and leukoencephalopathy with and/or without restricted diffusion (11%). The predominant CT chest findings were peripheral ground-glass opacities with or without consolidation. CONCLUSIONS: The CT lung disease severity score may be predictive of acute abnormalities on neuroimaging in patients with COVID-19 with neurologic manifestations. This can be used as a predictive tool in patient management to improve clinical outcome. ABBREVIATIONS: COVID-19 ¼ coronavirus disease 2019; GGOs ¼ ground-glass opacities; PRES ¼ posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome; SARS-CoV-2 ¼ Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2; TIPIC ¼ Transient Perivascular Inflammation of the Carotid artery syndrome S evere Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) began in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and has rapidly spread around the world to become a pandemic. 1 Extensive studies have described chest and brain imaging characteristics associated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). 2-13 The hallmarks of COVID-19 infection on chest imaging
Rationale and Objectives: Following state and institutional guidelines, our Radiology department launched the "Recover Wisely" for all nonurgent radiology care on May 4, 2020. Our objective is to report our practice implementation and experience of COVID-19 recovery during the resumption of routine imaging at a tertiary academic medical center. Materials and Methods: We used the SQUIRE 2.0 guidelines for this practice implementation. Recover Wisely focused on a data driven, strategic rescheduling and redesigning patient flow process. We used scheduling simulations and meticulous monitoring and control of outpatient medical imaging volumes to achieve a linear restoration to our pre-COVID imaging studies. We had a tiered plan to address the backlog of rescheduled patients with gradual opening of our imaging facilities, while maintaining broad communication with our patients and referring clinicians. Results: Recover Wisely followed our anticipated linear modeling. Considering the last 10 weeks in the recovery, outpatient growth was linear with an increase of approximately 172 cases per week, (R 2 =0.97). We achieved an overall recovery of 102% in week 10, as compared to average weekly pre-COVID outpatient volumes. The modalities recovered as follows in outpatient volumes: CT (113%), MRI (101%), nuclear medicine including PET (138%), mammograms (97%), ultrasound (99%) and interventional radiology (106%). When compared to identical 2019 calendar weeks (May 4, 2020ÀJuly 10, 2020), the total 2020 radiology volume was 11% reduced from the 2019 volume. The reduction in total weighted relative value units was 8% in this time period, as compared to 2019. Conclusion: Our department utilized a data-driven, team approach based on our guiding principles to "Recover Wisely." We created and implemented a methodology that achieved a linear increase in outpatient studies over a 10-week recovery period.
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