Ohio Response to COVID-19 and Its Impact on Interventional Pain Management Practices

• Published in: Pain physician Vol. 23; no. 4S; pp. S439 - S447
• Main Authors: Soin, Amol, Vuppala, Srinivas, Surfield, Gregory, Buenaventura, Ricardo, Malinowski, Mark, Rajaratnam, Akash, Madan, Rahul, Khan, Omar, Dann, Tammy L, Singla, Aarti, Escobar, Alex, Akbik, Humam, Sachdeva, Harsh, Soin, Yasmeen, Shah, Shalini, Minhas, Rajbir, Chandoke, Atul
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Society of Interventional Pain Physician 01-08-2020
• Subjects: Betacoronavirus; Communicable Disease Control - methods; Coronavirus Infections - prevention & control; Coronavirus Infections - transmission; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Disease transmission; Humans; Infections; Ohio; Pain Management; Pandemics; Pandemics - prevention & control; Pneumonia, Viral - prevention & control; Pneumonia, Viral - transmission; SARS-CoV-2; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Social distancing; Ohio; United States > US; mitigating effects; infection rates; infection control; COVID 19; dpandemic
• ISSN: 1533-3159; 2150-1149
• DOI: 10.36076/ppj.2020/23/S439

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has drastically altered daily living and medical care for Ohio residents and the practice of medicine for the interventional pain management physician. As a state, Ohio tends to be demographically representative of the broader US population.
Reviewing the efforts deployed by Ohio to flatten the COVID-19 infection curve and reduce the spread of the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is an important component of determining optimal procedures for mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the course of several announcements and orders during the months of March and April, new policies were put into place to prevent COVID-19 transmission, which included efforts to facilitate social distancing and ensure the health care system could manage the number of COVID-19 cases at peak infection rate. Efforts directed toward medical providers included delay of elective procedures, expansion of telehealth options, and new temporary guidance for prescribing controlled substances.
The Ohio COVID-19 containment approach resulted in a substantial reduction in COVID-19 cases compared with early models of disease spread, and the state has begun a phased reopening. Continued vigilance in applying social distancing and infection control measures will be a critical component of preventing or reducing the impact of a second wave of COVID-19 in Ohio.
A narrative review with paucity of literature.