Urgency and emergency treatments in cardiovascular surgery during the
COVID pandemic: results of extremized HUB and spoke organization in
northern Italy.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Feasibility and results of cardiovascular hub-spoke networks
to face COVID19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic in Italy had the primary
outbreak in the northern part of the country forcing the regional health
care system to expand the availability of beds in the wards and
intensive care units and to institute a Hub and Spoke hospital network
to ensure assistance continuity for urgencies and emergencies. We report
a descriptive analysis of the activity of the first 30 days of the Hub
center. METHODS: Role of our Hub center was to guarantee 24/24h 7/7days
cardiovascular surgical care for an area of 3.145.312 inhabitants’ area.
Hub-spoke reorganization permitted a significant increase of ICU and
ward beds availability for COVID patients needing hospitalization in all
peripheral centers. Records of all consecutive patients admitted were
collected and analyzed. RESULTS: a total of 100 patients were evaluated
in the study period . Hub and spoke cooperation have been successful,
all patients affected by cardiovascular urgencies or emergencies found a
highly specialized hospital and was evaluated and treated. Global
reduction of elective and non-deferrable interventions in spoke centers
was achieved for both vascular and cardiac surgery while we detected a
significant increase of urgent vascular interventions for acute limb
ischemia. We did not observe an increase of in-hospital mortality in
non-infected patients. CONCLUSION: Hub and spoke network for
cardiovascular pathology is an effective way to face healthcare needs
during the pandemic.