key: cord-0719169-l2h95p2q
authors: Smith, Craig
title: Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on cardiac surgery
date: 2021-08-08
journal: Ann Thorac Surg
DOI: 10.1016/j.athoracsur.2021.07.017
sha: e30741d0d02912e964620d7b01d5e21fd0eacd13
doc_id: 719169
cord_uid: l2h95p2q

nan

In the summer of 2020, while enjoying the halcyon pause between the first and second surges, the failure of cardiac surgery volumes to return to normal was a source of widespread apprehension. It is at least somewhat comforting for Nguyen and colleagues to confirm that it wasn't just my patients who stopped loving me, or my Department's patients, or my region's patients. In addition to several potentially important factors well discussed by the authors, there may be a subtle business-of-medicine message here. The financial viability of hospitals in this country depends on performing elective procedures on patients with commercial insurance, particularly in the most profitable specialties. Service lines devoted to the treatment of heart disease have operating rooms, cath labs, specialized equipment, seductive new devices, and fleets of cardiologists feeding the beast. Maybe our elective procedures were never more than ~80% demand-push. Are the ~20% that were actually supply-pull proof of over-utilization, or does their disappearance post-surge simply represent a temporary shift in public health priorities? Perhaps in due time we'll recreate "demand" in the 20%, but without necessarily answering that question. J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f

The Effect of COVID-19 on Adult Cardiac Surgery in the United States in 717,103 Patients