The Impact of COVID-19 Redeployment on an Orthopedic Surgery Department at a Tertiary Care Medical Center in New York City.

BACKGROUND: The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in new, non-orthopedic roles for many members of our New York City based orthopedic department, including redeployment to medicine wards, emergency departments, and intensive care units. The purpose of this study was to determine if certain areas of redeployment predisposed individuals to higher likelihood of positive diagnostic or serologic testing for COVID-19. METHODS: In this study, attendings, residents, and phy-sician assistants within our orthopedic department were surveyed to determine their roles during the COVID-19 pandemic and whether they were tested via diagnostic or serologic methods for detecting COVID-19. Additionally, symptoms and missed days of work were reported. RESULTS: No significant association between redeployment site and rate of positive COVID-19 diagnostic (p = 0.91) or serologic (p = 0.38) testing was detected. Sixty individuals responded to the survey, with 88.3% of respondents rede-ployed during the pandemic. Nearly half (n = 28) of those redeployed experienced at least one COVID-19 related symptom. Two respondents had a positive diagnostic test, and 10 had a positive serologic test. CONCLUSIONS: Area of redeployment during the COVID-19 pandemic is not associated with an increased risk of subse-quently having a positive diagnostic or serologic COVID-19 test.

The Orthopaedic Resident Selection Process: Proposed Reforms and Lessons From Other Specialties.

INTRODUCTION: Proposals for substantive reforms to the orthopaedic resident selection process are growing, given increasing applicant competitiveness, burgeoning inefficiencies and inequities of the current system, and impending transition of Step 1 to pass/fail. The COVID-19 pandemic has further catalyzed the need for reforms, offering unprecedented opportunities to pilot novel changes. However, a comprehensive collation of all proposed and implemented orthopaedic reforms is currently lacking. Thus, we aimed to characterize proposed orthopaedic-specific resident selection reforms in the context of reforms implemented by other specialties. METHODS: EMBASE, MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Science databases were searched for references proposing reforms to the orthopaedic resident selection process published from 2005 to 2020. An inductive approach to qualitative content analysis was used to categorize reforms. RESULTS: Twenty-six articles proposing 13 unique reforms to the orthopaedic resident selection process were identified. The most commonly proposed reforms included noncognitive assessments (n = 8), application caps (n = 7), standardized letters of recommendation (n = 5), program-specific supplemental applications (n = 5), creation of a centralized database of standardized program information (n = 4), use of a standardized applicant composite score (n = 4), and a moratorium on postinterview communication (n = 4). Importantly, nearly all of these reforms have also been proposed or implemented by other specialties. DISCUSSION: Numerous reforms to the orthopaedic resident selection process have been suggested over the past 15 years, several of which have been implemented on a program-specific basis, including noncognitive assessments, supplemental applications, and standardized letters of recommendation. Careful examination of applicant and program experiences and Match outcomes after these reforms is imperative to inform future directions.