Preprint
Communication

­­A Radiation Oncology Departmental Policy for the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic

Submitted:

21 March 2020

Posted:

23 March 2020

You are already at the latest version

Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic is placing unprecedented stress on healthcare systems around the world. Although Radiation Oncology Departments are not at the frontline of fighting this infectious disease, it is important to implement COVID-19 policies to reduce risk of staff and patient exposure, and to limit the risk of department shutdown or downtime. This brief report describes the policy implemented at George Washington University Radiation Oncology to manage the risks of COVID-19. This includes a General Statement related to the priorities of the Radiation Oncology department, a screening procedure for new and follow-up patients, management policies for critical and non-critical patients with COVID-19 or under quarantine, a policy for the management of patients currently under treatment who are diagnosed or placed in quarantine, a clinical escalation action plan, guidelines for staff meetings and travel, and procedure management. This policy was implemented at George Washington University Radiation Oncology after the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Washington DC on March 7, 2020.
Keywords: 
;  ;  ;  ;  ;  
Copyright: This open access article is published under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, which permit the free download, distribution, and reuse, provided that the author and preprint are cited in any reuse.

Downloads

872

Views

871

Comments

0

Subscription

Notify me about updates to this article or when a peer-reviewed version is published.

Email

Prerpints.org logo

Preprints.org is a free preprint server supported by MDPI in Basel, Switzerland.

Subscribe

© 2025 MDPI (Basel, Switzerland) unless otherwise stated