Transitioning a Surgery Practice to Telehealth during COVID-19

Abstract

The spread of COVID-19 has challenged practices across the United States to dramatically change inpatient and outpatient practices to focus on containing spread of the virus and accommodate the anticipated increase in volume of acute illness. Despite this transition, practices will need to continue to accommodate evaluation of newly diagnosed malignancies, routine postoperative visits, and acute postoperative issues. Building on an existing telemedicine framework, we aim to describe rapid transition in our outpatient care to a telehealth model in a general thoracic surgery practice during COVID-19.