scholarly journals Quantifying the Impact of COVID-19 on Cancer Patients: A Technical Report of Patient Experience During the COVID-19 Pandemic at a High-volume Radiation Oncology Proton Center in New York City

Cureus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert H Press ◽  
Shaakir Hasan ◽  
Arpit M Chhabra ◽  
J. Isabelle Choi ◽  
Charles B Simone
2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 10572-10572
Author(s):  
Amelia Sawyers ◽  
Margaret Chou ◽  
Paul Johannet ◽  
Nicholas Gulati ◽  
Yingzhi Qian ◽  
...  

10572 Background: Several reports have suggested that cancer patients are at increased risk for contracting severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and suffering worse coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outcomes. However, little is known about the impact of cancer status on presentation and outcome. Here, we report on the association between cancer status and survival in hospitalized patients who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 during the height of pandemic in New York City. Methods: Of the 6,724 patients who were hospitalized at NYU Langone Health (3/16/20 - 7/31/20) and tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, 580 had either active cancer (n = 221) or a history of cancer (n = 359). Patients were classified as having active malignancy if they either received treatment within six months of their COVID-19 diagnosis or they had measurable disease documented at the time of their hospitalization. Patients were categorized as having a history of cancer if there was no evidence of measurable disease or there were no treatments administered within six months of their COVID-19 diagnosis. We compared the baseline clinicodemographic characteristics and hospital courses of the two groups, and the relationship between cancer status and the rate of admission to the intensive care unit (ICU), use of invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV), and all-cause mortality. Results: There was no differences between the two groups in their baseline laboratory results associated with COVID-19 infection, incidence of venous thromboembolism, or incidence of severe COVID-19. Active cancer status was not associated with the rate of ICU admission ( P = 0.307) or use of IMV ( P = 0.236), but was significantly associated with worse all-cause mortality in both univariate and multivariate analysis with ORs of 1.48 (95% CI: 1.04-2.09; P = 0.028) and 1.71 (95% CI: 1.12-2.63; P = 0.014), respectively. Conclusions: Active cancer patients had worse survival outcomes compared to patients with a history of cancer despite similar COVID-19 disease characteristics in the two groups. Our data suggest that cancer care should continue with minimal interruptions during the pandemic to bring about response and remission as soon as possible. Additionally, these findings support the growing body of evidence that malignancy portends worse COVID-19 prognosis, and demonstrate that the risk may even apply to those without active disease.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-27
Author(s):  
Shaakir Hasan ◽  
Robert H. Press ◽  
Arpit Chhabra ◽  
J. Isabelle Choi ◽  
Charles B. Simone

Abstract Purpose The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) forced radiation oncology clinics to overhaul operational policies, but the effect on employee safety has not, to our knowledge, been reported. The New York Proton Center (NYPC), a large freestanding clinic in New York City, New York, presents a 1-month experience of employee-reported health outcomes after the infiltration of COVID-19 and enforcement of policies designed to mitigate its impact. Materials and Methods In March 2020, new operational policies were implemented, including rigorous and frequent sanitation, visitor and treatment restrictions, distribution of personal protective equipment, work-from-home orders, and isolated nursing and radiation therapy teams. Employees of NYPC were prospectively monitored for exposure and symptoms of COVID-19. Work hours lost because of illness or quarantines were quantified from March 1, 2020, to March 31, 2020. Results Among 95 total employees, 23 (24%) were quarantined because of symptoms (n = 15; 65%), high-risk exposure (n = 5; 22%), or self-quarantined with personal concern (n = 3; 13%). Of 44 full-time, on-site employees, 39% (n = 17, including 6 therapists and 5 nurses) missed significant work time, including 6 (14%) with confirmed COVID-19. At full capacity, NYPC would have used 7260 work hours during March 2020 from the full-time, on-site staff, which was reduced by 18.8% overall (25.2% of nursing and 13.3% of therapy work hours), all in the latter half of the month. Among the therapist lost work hours, 92% were from 2 of 7 distinct, isolated therapy teams (29%). Without isolation, the exposure was modeled to have been 100%. Conclusion Despite losing significant staff hours in our department because of COVID-19, early and aggressive adoption of current, recommended policy guidelines outlined in this manuscript allowed NYPC to continue patient operations at full capacity.


2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min Gyung Kim ◽  
Hyunjoo Yang ◽  
Anna S. Mattila

New York City launched a restaurant sanitation letter grade system in 2010. We evaluate the impact of customer loyalty on restaurant revisit intentions after exposure to a sanitation grade alone, and after exposure to a sanitation grade plus narrative information about sanitation violations (e.g., presence of rats). We use a 2 (loyalty: high or low) × 4 (sanitation grade: A, B, C, or pending) between-subjects full factorial design to test the hypotheses using data from 547 participants recruited from Amazon MTurk who reside in the New York City area. Our study yields three findings. First, loyal customers exhibit higher intentions to revisit restaurants than non-loyal customers, regardless of sanitation letter grades. Second, the difference in revisit intentions between loyal and non-loyal customers is higher when sanitation grades are poorer. Finally, loyal customers are less sensitive to narrative information about sanitation violations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 56 (S2) ◽  
pp. 41-42
Author(s):  
Sanjay Pinto ◽  
Madeline Sterling ◽  
Faith Wiggins ◽  
Rebecca Hall ◽  
Chenjuan Ma

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle Seidman ◽  
Brittney S. Zimmerman ◽  
Lauren Margetich ◽  
Serena Tharakan ◽  
Natalie Berger ◽  
...  

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