The clinical course of COVID in pregnancy.

The 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic poses unique challenges to the medical community as the optimal treatment has not been determined and is often at the discretion of institutional guidelines. Pregnancy has previously been described as a high-risk state in the context of infectious diseases, given a particular susceptibility to pathogens and adverse outcomes. Although ongoing studies have provided insight on the course of this disease in the adult population, the implications of COVID-19 on pregnancy remains an understudied area. The objective of this study is to review the literature and describe clinical presentations among pregnant women afflicted with COVID-19.

Primed for a pandemic: Implementation of telehealth outpatient monitoring for women with mild COVID-19.

Close observation and rapid escalation of care is essential for obstetric patients with COVID-19. The pandemic forced widespread conversion of in-person to virtual care delivery and telehealth was primed to enable outpatient surveillance of infected patients. We describe the experience and lessons learned while designing and implementing a virtual telemonitoring COVID-19 clinic for obstetric patients. All patients with suspected for confirmed COVID-19 were referred and enrolled. Telehealth visits were conducted every 24 to 72 hours based on the severity of symptoms and care was escalated to in person when necessary. The outcome of the majority (96.1%) of telehealth visits was to continue outpatient management. With regard to escalation of care, 25 patients (26.6%) presented for in person evaluation and five patients (5.3%) required inpatient admission. A virtual telemonitoring clinic for obstetric patients with mild COVID-19 offers an effective surveillance strategy as it allows for close monitoring, direct connection to in person evaluation, minimization of patient and provider exposure, and scalability.

Building an obstetric intensive care unit during the COVID-19 pandemic at a tertiary hospital and selected maternal-fetal and delivery considerations.

During the novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic, New York City became an international epicenter for this highly infectious respiratory virus. In anticipation of the unfortunate reality of community spread and high disease burden, the Anesthesia and Obstetrics and Gynecology departments at NewYork-Presbyterian / Columbia University Irving Medical Center, an academic hospital system in Manhattan, created an Obstetric Intensive Care Unit on Labor and Delivery to defray volume from the hospital's preexisting intensive care units. Its purpose was threefold: (1) to accommodate the anticipated influx of critically ill pregnant and postpartum patients due to novel coronavirus, (2) to care for critically ill obstetric patients who would previously have been transferred to a non-obstetric intensive care unit, and (3) to continue caring for our usual census of pregnant and postpartum patients, who are novel Coronavirus negative and require a higher level of care. In this chapter, we share key operational details for the conversion of a non-intensive care space into an obstetric intensive care unit, with an emphasis on the infrastructure, personnel and workflow, as well as the goals for maternal and fetal monitoring.

Preparation and redeployment of house staff during a pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic created unique issues for house staff physicians. Gaps in surgical experience due to canceled cases, a focus on obstetrics over gynecology during the spring months when many senior residents and fellows are completing their case requirements and the stress of working with patients infected with a highly communicable disease all contributed to an unprecedented challenge facing residency and fellowship programs. Our objective is to describe how the Obstetrics and Gynecology residency and fellowship programs at Columbia University Irving Medical Center adapted to their changing landscape, redeployed their residents and fellows while assuring ongoing trainee education, wellness and scholarship during the peak of the pandemic.