In order to contain the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, Germany has implemented drastic restrictions on public or social life, while health institutions are invoked to postpone elective procedures. Although urologists are less involved in the direct treatment of COVID-19 patients, the current situation strongly affects the urological work routine.
To analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on various aspects of work and personal life among urologists in Germany.
A total of 589 urologists in Germany participated in an online survey between March 18 and April 11, 2020.
Participants were stratified into subgroups according to professional characteristics.
Most urologists rated Germany as "well prepared" and the increasing restrictions of social life as "very positive." Routine operation was more restricted in hospitals than in the outpatient sector (p = 0.046). Moreover, urologists from the outpatient sector felt significantly less prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic (p = 0.001), reported a higher shortage of protective medical equipment (p < 0.001), and described a tendency toward a higher level of threat (p = 0.054). Although restrictions regarding telemedicine approaches were reported by 60% of participants, the outpatient sector used telehealth more frequently than hospitals (25.5% vs 17.0%, p < 0.001). Limitations include the national design and the restricted survey period.
This survey systematically evaluates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on personal and professional aspects of German urologists. We identified several issues, such as a higher shortage of medical protective equipment in the outpatient sector that could trigger specific measures to further improve the quality of urological care in Germany.
We evaluated a potential impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on professional and personal aspects of the urologists in Germany. Our results suggest that the outpatient sector should receive specific attention as, for example, shortage of protective equipment was more common.
European urology focus. 2020 Jun 08 [Epub ahead of print]
Pia Paffenholz, Arne Peine, Nicolas Fischer, Martin Hellmich, David Pfister, Axel Heidenreich, Sven H Loosen
Department of Urology, Uro-Oncology, Robot Assisted and Reconstructive Urologic Surgery, University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany. Electronic address: ., Department of Intensive Care Medicine and Intermediate Care, University Hospital RWTH, Aachen, Germany., Department of Urology, Uro-Oncology, Robot Assisted and Reconstructive Urologic Surgery, University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany., Institute for Medical Statistics and Computational Biology (IMSB), Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany., Department of Medicine III, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany.