Safety at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic: how to keep our oncology patients and healthcare workers safe. | PSNet

Safety at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic: how to keep our oncology patients and healthcare workers safe. | PSNet

Safety at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic: how to keep our oncology patients and healthcare workers safe

Cinar P, Kubal T, Freifeld A, et al. J Natl Compr Canc Netw. 2020

This article reviews strategies to mitigate transmission of COVID-19 among patients with cancer and for the healthcare workers providing care to those patients. The authors recommend several approaches ensure patient safety, including COVID-19 prescreening/screening via telemedicine, greater utilization of tele-oncology, limiting surgeries and procedures to only essential, urgent, or emergent cases, and switching therapies to oral (versus infusion) when possible. They also propose measures focused on healthcare worker safety, including appropriate use of personal protective equipment (PPE), use of daily screening tools and/or temperature checks, greater use of telework and limited onsite staff, and clear stay-at-home and return-to-work guidelines.