The Management of a Comprehensive Cancer Center during the First Six Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the South of France: Lessons from the Paoli-Calmettes Institute’s Experience
, Pierre Berger4, Djamel Mokart5, Jacques Camerlo6, Emmanuelle Fougereau7, Marc Giovannini8, Gilles Houvenaeghel3, 9, Olivier Turrini3, 10, Christian Chabannon2, 3, 11, Gilles Piana12, Isabelle Brenot-Rossi13, Agnès Tallet14, Anthony Gonçalves2, 3, 15, Aude Charbonnier1, Norbert Vey1, 2, 3, Sabrina Grossi16, Patrice Viens3, 15, 16, 17, †DB and PV contributed equally to this paper.
- DOI
- 10.2991/chi.k.210919.001How to use a DOI?
- Keywords
- COVID-19; pandemic; hospital management; real-world experience; lessons learned
- Abstract
During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was rapidly established that cancer patients have an increased risk of developing severe forms of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) due to a backlog of cancer diagnostics and immunosuppressive treatments. Cancer centers had to quickly adapt to continue cancer therapies despite the high infection risks and major disruptions in the French healthcare system. We described and analyzed the impact of the pandemic in our institution: management adjustments, COVID-19 infection rates in patients and staff, and impacts on clinical activities and finances during the first wave of the pandemic from March to September 2020. We also compared the results to the clinical activity data from preceding periods. A crisis unit was rapidly created that met 27 times over 66 days, generating numerous changes in hospital protocol. While our area was devastated by the pandemic, the infection rate of our staff and patients remained low (less than 1.5% of all employees). However, the lockdown period was accompanied with a reduction of most clinical activities, leading to decreases of 43%, 36%, 36%, 1%, and 10% in surgery, endoscopy, radiotherapy, and in- and out-patient chemotherapy sessions, respectively, with substantial financial loss. Our report highlights the need for the rapid creation, implementation, and adaptation of new protocols during a pandemic’s evolution to prevent disease transmission. Lessons from this situation should provide motivation to better prepare for/limit the dismantling of cancer therapies that can dramatically impact patient care and have deleterious consequences on an institution’s financial situation.
- Copyright
- © 2021 International Academy for Clinical Hematology. Publishing services by Atlantis Press International B.V.
- Open Access
- This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
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TY - JOUR AU - Didier Blaise AU - Pierre Berger AU - Djamel Mokart AU - Jacques Camerlo AU - Emmanuelle Fougereau AU - Marc Giovannini AU - Gilles Houvenaeghel AU - Olivier Turrini AU - Christian Chabannon AU - Gilles Piana AU - Isabelle Brenot-Rossi AU - Agnès Tallet AU - Anthony Gonçalves AU - Aude Charbonnier AU - Norbert Vey AU - Sabrina Grossi AU - Patrice Viens PY - 2021 DA - 2021/09/27 TI - The Management of a Comprehensive Cancer Center during the First Six Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the South of France: Lessons from the Paoli-Calmettes Institute’s Experience JO - Clinical Hematology International SP - 119 EP - 129 VL - 3 IS - 4 SN - 2590-0048 UR - https://doi.org/10.2991/chi.k.210919.001 DO - 10.2991/chi.k.210919.001 ID - Blaise2021 ER -