Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Virol. Nov 25, 2022; 11(6): 394-398
Published online Nov 25, 2022. doi: 10.5501/wjv.v11.i6.394
Intensive care unit adaptations in the COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons learned
Anwar Khedr, David Rokser, Jeanine Borge, Hannah Rushing, Greta Zoesch, Wade Johnson, Han-Yin Wang, April Lanz, Brian N Bartlett, Jessica Poehler, Salim Surani, Syed A Khan
Anwar Khedr, Department of Medicine, BronxCare Health System, Bronx, NY 10457, United States
David Rokser, Department of Critical Care Medicine, Mayo Health System, Mankato, MN 56001, United States
Jeanine Borge, Hannah Rushing, Greta Zoesch, Jessica Poehler, Syed A Khan, Department of Critical Care Medicine, Mayo Clinic Health System, Mankato, MN 56001, United States
Wade Johnson, April Lanz, Department of Administration, Mayo Clinic Health System, Mankato, MN 56001, United States
Han-Yin Wang, Hospital Medicine, Mayo Clinic Health System, Mankato, MN 56001, United States
Brian N Bartlett, Department of Emergency Medicine, Mayo Clinic Health System, Mankato, MN 56001, United States
Salim Surani, Department of Medicine, Texas A&M University, Health Science Center, College Station, TX 77843, United States
Author contributions: Khedr A, Rokser D, Poehler J, and Wang HY involved in the manuscript drafting; Khedr A, Rokser D, Poehler J, Wang HY, Rushing H, Bartlett BN, Zoesch G, Johnson W, Lanz A, Surani S, and Khan SA involved in the manuscript editing, and agreeing to the final accuracy of the work; Surani S and Khan SA contributed to the supervision, critical revision of the manuscript and reviewing.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Salim Surani, FCCP, MD, MS, Professor, Department of Medicine, Texas A&M University, Health Science Center, 400 Bizzell Street, College Station, TX 77843, United States. srsurani@hotmail.com
Received: August 1, 2022
Peer-review started: August 1, 2022
First decision: September 5, 2022
Revised: September 17, 2022
Accepted: October 19, 2022
Article in press: October 19, 2022
Published online: November 25, 2022
Processing time: 114 Days and 11.7 Hours
Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic had deleterious effects on the healthcare systems around the world. To increase intensive care units (ICUs) bed capacities, multiple adaptations had to be made to increase surge capacity. In this editorial, we demonstrate the changes made by an ICU of a midwest community hospital in the United States. These changes included moving patients that used to be managed in the ICU to progressive care units, such as patients requiring non-invasive ventilation and high flow nasal cannula, ST-elevation myocardial infarction patients, and post-neurosurgery patients. Additionally, newer tactics were applied to the processes of assessing oxygen supply and demand, patient care rounds, and post-ICU monitoring.

Keywords: COVID-19; Pandemics; Oxygen; Intensive care units; ST elevation myo-cardial infarction; Nasal cannula

Core Tip: In this editorial, we demonstrate how the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic changed our lives in the intensive care unit (ICU), especially in the management of surge capacity and allocation of resources in a 10-bed ICU of a United States suburban midwest community hospital. These strategies included managing complex patients in our progressive care unit, assessing oxygen supply and demand, performing patient care rounds, and post-ICU monitoring.