The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) has collated a number of resources to provide information on COVID-19 and its impact, including advocacy, clinical practice guidelines, and a letter from the SVS president. The resource page can be found here.
The advocacy resources section contains information on regulatory changes to help the US healthcare system address the COVID-19 “patient surge”. It reads: “The CMS [Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services] issued an interim final rule on Monday 30 March detailing new rules to equip the American healthcare system with flexibility to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. These temporary changes will apply immediately across the entire US healthcare system for the duration of the emergency declaration.”
The resource page then provides a number of links to the following: the SVS summary of CMS activities, Medicare and Medicaid policy and regulatory revisions in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency, CMS flexibilities to fight COVID-19 for physicians and other clinicians, CMS coronavirus waivers and flexibilities, and Trump administration regulatory changes to help the US healthcare system address growing numbers of COVID-19 patients.
In terms of clinical practice, the SVS Clinical Practice Council has developed guidance in triaging vascular surgery patients’ procedures during the pandemic. This section also offers telemedicine guides and a handbook on COVID-19 prevention and treatment. Furthermore, there are a number of links to associated resources, including the American Medical Association Resource Center for Physicians, the American College of Surgeons, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CMS, and FDA press announcements, among others.
Finally, the resource page includes a message from SVS president, Kim Hodgson, entitled “The Society for Vascular Surgery—A bridge over troubled waters” on how the SVS is working and communicating with members during this time.
A snapshot of the letter outlines the importance of collaboration during this time: “As I write this, COVID-19 has upended virtually everything we knew as normal about our world and many are struggling to envision what a post-COVID world will look like, not to mention the path we need to take to get there. But get there we will, and it can only be easier if we do it together, true to the heritage of vascular surgery, learning from each other as we go.”
