The impact of delaying surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic in Alberta: a qualitative study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic overwhelmed health care systems, leading many jurisdictions to reduce surgeries to create capacity (beds and staff) to care for the surge of patients with COVID-19; little is known about the impact of this on patients whose surgery was delayed. The objective of this study was to understand the patient and family/caregiver perspective of having a surgery delayed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

Using an interpretative descriptive approach, we conducted interviews between Sept. 20 and Oct. 8, 2021. Adult patients who had their surgery delayed or cancelled during the COVID-19 pandemic in Alberta, Canada, and their family/caregivers were eligible to participate. Trained interviewers conducted semistructured interviews, which were iteratively

SUBMITTER: Sauro KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9894654 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan-Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature