Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Brazilian Head and Neck Surgery Centers

Alvarenga, Gustavo Fernandes de; Leite, Ana Kober Nogueira; Lehn, Carlos Neutzling; Dedivitis, Rogério Aparecido; Nakai, Marianne Yumi; Cavalheiro, Beatriz G.; Teixeira, Gilberto Vaz; Cicco, Rafael De; Kowalski, Luiz Paulo; Matos, Leandro Luongo de

doi:10.1016/j.bjorl.2023.01.002

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 23 publications

(37 reference statements)

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“…The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on surgical volume throughout the United States has garnered increased attention, as surgical cases across all specialties seem to reach a stasis in fluctuation more than 2 years after the removal of the shelter-in-place order. [21][22][23][24][25] Although the consensus among health care institutions was to limit potential exposure of viral infection for patients scheduled for nonemergent or elective surgeries, consideration for the case volume and subsequent financial impact on institutions was given limited attention. 10 In plastic surgery, this reduction of surgical volume was expected to have the most significant impact due to the elective nature of many surgical cases.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shifts in Reduction Mammaplasty Surgical Volumes With the Emergence of a Global Pandemic

Shah,

Navarro,

Thawanyarat

et al. 2024

Ann Plast Surg

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Introduction The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in significant changes to the surgical caseload for various surgery departments across the United States. As medical institutions prioritized resources for the expected increase in patient volumes due to the SARS-CoV-2 viral infection, surgical departments saw a decrease in nonemergent and elective surgical procedures. Reduction mammoplasties, which are largely covered by insurance, are among the elective procedures that provide significant revenue to the hospital. This expected decline in procedures suggests a potential decline in revenue provided by the plastic surgery department of a hospital. The purpose of this study was to analyze the loss of revenue experienced by a single academic medical institution due to changes in breast reduction mammoplasty volumes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Upon institutional review board approval, using the Augusta University Medical Center's Financial Billing Data, 373 patients who underwent bilateral reduction mammoplasty were queried. A time horizon of March 2019 to February 2022 was used to determine the pre- and post-COVID case load and charges that were incurred. Statistical analysis to compare the prior 12 months and after 24 months of COVID was conducted using 2 samples of equal variance t test and F test confirming equal variance. Results There was a statistically significant increase in the number of reduction mammoplasties performed per month from the year before the onset of COVID-19 (March 2020) to the 2 years after (6.6–11.4 per month, P = 0.0024). There was a statistically significant increase in the per-month charges from the AU Health system for reduction mammoplasties for the same period ($31,780.92–$52,113.34 per month, P = 0.0054). Although there was an increase in per-month revenue from reduction mammoplasties, this increase failed to reach statistical significance ($7,059.95–$10,423.51 per month, P = 0.064). Conclusions The plastic surgery department saw a statistically significant increase in reduction mammoplasty cases and subsequent charges in the post-COVID cohort. These findings suggest that the emergence of a nationwide pandemic did not necessarily lead to a decrease in the volume of nonemergent surgical cases despite an expected decrease in caseload due to the need to reallocate hospital resources. On the contrary, there was an increase in caseload suggesting that there may be other factors contributing to patients' pursuance of reduction mammoplasty post-COVID including convenience, resulting from time off due to pandemic, meeting insurance-covered reduction criteria, and projected recovery time.

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