An assessment of United States dermatology practices during the COVID-19 outbreak

Abstract

Objectives: The COVID-19 outbreak is a serious threat to public health and social distancing on the part of individuals can help contain the epidemic. It is unknown if dermatologists are assisting with the public health officials' recommendations for social distancing by closing their practice or limiting their practice to the treatment of emergency conditions. This study examines the activity level of dermatology practices during the United States COVID-19 outbreak. Methods: We performed scripted phone calls to 60 dermatology practices in six different counties in the United Stated during the COVID-19 outbreak. We assessed if practices are open and if they are serving patients with urgent and non-urgent conditions. Results: Of the 60 dermatologists selected for the study, 55 were successfully contacted (92% contact rate). Of these practices, 29 (53%) were open, 17 (31%) were only seeing urgent patients and 9 (16%) were closed. New York, New York had 2 (20%) open offices which was the lowest proportion of any county (p ¼ .04). Counties with higher prevalence had fewer open offices (p < .01, R 2 ¼ .7). Conclusions: Many practices have restricted their level of operation especially in higher areas of COVID-19 prevalence, likely to help facilitate social distancing. ARTICLE HISTORY

Practice Patterns and Responsiveness to Simulated Common Ocular Complaints Among US Ophthalmology Centers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…This study identifies that comprehensive ophthalmologists appear to be abiding by guidelines suggesting evaluation for only urgent patients. Our findings mirror a recent report looking at dermatology practices, 22 another outpatientbased subspecialty. In summary, more private practices were open to all patients during the COVID-19 pandemic while university centers were more likely to only see urgent patients, and private practice centers were seeing patients sooner for both nonurgent and semiurgent ophthalmologic complaints.…”

Change in Allergy Practice during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Outpatient clinic face-to-face consultations were limited to new urgent patients with rheumatological diseases in Australia, and they switched nearly 80% of outpatient appointments to telemedicine [ 8 ]. This also caused a restriction and reduction of many diagnostic and therapeutic services [ 6 , 7 ]. Direct involvement of disciplines other than infectious disease such as dermatology for COVID-19 patient care in countries with the highest incidence also had an impact on cancellation of elective services [ 6 ].…”

The efficacy of social distance and ventilation effectiveness in preventing COVID-19 transmission

“…Social distancing, also called “physical distancing”, means keeping space between anyone and others outside of their homes. Many countries ( Richard & Horizon, 2020 ), such as Australia ( Australian Government, D.o.H., 2020a , 2020b ), Italy ( Giordano, Blanchini, & Bruno, 2020 ), England( Liverpool, 2020 ), and America ( Prevention, 2019 , 2020 ) have implemented restrictions on social activities; and researchers ( Aderibigbe, 2020 ; Ashwin & Shantal, 2020 ; CMAJ, 2020 ; Ginger, Jay, Benoit, & Eric, 2020 ; Mahase, 2020 ; Morawska, Lidia, & Junji, 2020 ; Muddasani, Housholder, Fleischer, B, & A., 2020 ; Qazi, Javaria, & Khulla, 2020 ; Setti, Auid-Orcid, Passarini, & Auid-Orcid, 2020 ; Zhang, Litvinova, & Liang, 2020 ) suggested increasing social distance to alleviate the spread of COVID-19. Some studies recommended ( CDC, 2020b ) that at least 2 m (6 feet) (about 2 arm’s length) should be kept from others, while others believed that 6 feet or 2 m may not be adequate during this COVID-19 outbreak ( Setti et al, 2020 ).…”