An Analysis of the Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Case Volumes in an Academic Subspecialty-Based Anatomic Pathology Practice

Abstract

The recent COVID pandemic has had a major effect on anatomic pathology specimen volumes across the country. The effect of this pandemic on a subspecialty academic practice is presented. We used a data-driven approach to monitor the changing workloads in a granular fashion and dynamically adjust the scheduling of faculty and histology staff accordingly to minimize the number of people present on-site. At the peak of the pandemic locally, the main hospital in our health system had 450 COVID-positive inpatients. The surgical pathology specimen volume dropped to 13% of the pre-pandemic levels, and this occurred about 2 weeks before the peak of the inpatient census; cytology specimens (the majority of which are outreach gynecological) dropped to approximately 5% of the pre-pandemic volume, 4 weeks before the peak inpatient census. All of the surgical subspecialty services showed a significant decrease in volume, with hematopathology being the least affected (dropped to 30% of the pre-pandemic level). The genitourinary surgical subspecialty service (predominantly prostate and bladder biopsies) was the most affected (dropped to 1% of the pre-pandemic level) but was fastest to return as clinical operations began to return to normal. The only specimen type which showed a significant increase in turnaround time during the pandemic was our gynecologic cytology specimens and that occurred as the specimen volume returned. This was due to stay-at-home directives for the cytotechnologists and the fact that some of them were retasked to participate in our SARS-CoV-2 testing.