Department of Neurosurgery, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA.
Department of Neurosurgery, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA.
World Neurosurg. 2021 Feb;146:e91-e99. doi: 10.1016/j.wneu.2020.10.025. Epub 2020 Oct 13.
We sought to understand how the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has affected the neurosurgical workforce.
We created a survey consisting of 22 questions to assess the respondent's operative experience, location, type of practice, subspecialty, changes in clinic and operative volumes, changes to staff, and changes to income since the pandemic began. The survey was distributed electronically to neurosurgeons throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.
Of the 724 who opened the survey link, 457 completed the survey. The respondents were from throughout the United States and Puerto Rico and represented all practices types and subspecialties. Nearly all respondents reported hospital restrictions on elective surgeries. Most reported a decline in clinic and operative volume. Nearly 70% of respondents saw a decrease in the work hours of their ancillary providers, and almost one half (49.1%) of the respondents had had to downsize their practice staff, office assistants, nurses, schedulers, and other personnel. Overall, 43.6% of survey respondents had experienced a decline in income, and 27.4% expected a decline in income in the upcoming billing cycle. More senior neurosurgeons and those with a private practice, whether solo or as part of a group, were more likely to experience a decline in income as a result of the pandemic compared with their colleagues.
The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic will likely have a lasting effect on the practice of medicine. Our survey results have described the early effects on the neurosurgical workforce. Nearly all neurosurgeons experienced a significant decline in clinical volume, which led to many downstream effects. Ultimately, analysis of the effects of such a pervasive pandemic will allow the neurosurgical workforce to be better prepared for similar events in the future.
我们试图了解 2019 年冠状病毒病大流行如何影响神经外科劳动力。
我们创建了一个包含 22 个问题的调查，以评估受访者的手术经验、所在地、执业类型、亚专业、门诊和手术量的变化、员工变化以及大流行开始以来收入的变化。该调查通过电子邮件分发给美国和波多黎各的神经外科医生。
在打开调查链接的 724 人中，有 457 人完成了调查。受访者来自美国各地和波多黎各，代表所有实践类型和亚专业。几乎所有受访者都报告称医院限制了择期手术。大多数人报告称门诊和手术量下降。近 70%的受访者看到辅助医疗提供者的工作时间减少，近一半（49.1%）的受访者不得不缩小其执业人员、办公室助理、护士、调度员和其他人员的规模。总体而言，43.6%的调查受访者收入下降，27.4%预计在即将到来的计费周期收入下降。与同事相比，经验丰富的神经外科医生和私人执业的神经外科医生（无论是单独执业还是作为小组的一部分）更有可能因大流行而导致收入下降。
2019 年冠状病毒病大流行可能对医学实践产生持久影响。我们的调查结果描述了大流行对神经外科劳动力的早期影响。几乎所有神经外科医生的临床工作量都显著下降，这导致了许多下游影响。最终，对如此普遍的大流行的影响进行分析将使神经外科劳动力为未来类似事件做好更好的准备。
