IU Health doctor shares what qualifies as ‘elective’ surgery during omicron spike
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Beginning last September, IU Health suspended all elective surgery procedures.
The hospital cited the COVID-19 surge. Doctors say the policy was implemented due to a lack of space as well as a stretched medical team. They had no other option except to postpone procedures not considered urgent
But the term “elective” is subjective.
News 8 spoke with Dr. Chris Weaver, senior vice president of clinical effectiveness at IU Health. He says deciding what is elective and what is urgent during the coronavirus pandemic isn’t easy. Comorbidity, defined as the simultaneous presence of two or more diseases or medical conditions in a patient, play a role.
“I wish there was a simple way of giving a clean definition and it would be a lot easier for us,” Weaver said. “Operationalizing it would be clean as well. But so much of it fits in the ‘it depends.’ You have to know about the patients, the comorbidities they have going on and how it’s affecting them. The timing from diagnosis to how quickly we need to find the final diagnosis, when and how to treat it and how it might affect their life.”
Weaver says life-threatening heart procedures, such as catheterizations, or a mastectomy could each fall into the elective category considering the nation’s latest COVID surge. But again, it depends on a multitude of factors.
IU Health is slated to resume elective surgeries in February.