How healthcare workers reacted to the different COVID-19 waves: An Italian survey.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic had a huge impact on radiology departments all over the world, affecting both management and healthcare workers (HCWs). Therefore, it became challenging to guarantee high standards of diagnosis while keeping up with the workload.

Methods: The study was approved by the institutional review board. Its aim was to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic over the radiology departments and HCWs through a survey. The questionnaire was available online from January to March 2022. Twelve areas of interest (sessions) were highlighted in the survey.

Results: The number of total responders was 1376 and 73.7% of participants worked in public healthcare facilities. Comparisons between participants working in public versus private healthcare facilities were carried out using chi-square tests and Fisher tests. Within public healthcare workers, 82% affirmed having operating instruction protocols regarding confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patient CT management (p< 0.001). Private healthcare facilities had fewer CT scanners available in general (p< 0.001); in fact, only 18% of them affirmed having two or more CT scanners, and did not have CT scanners dedicated to confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients (p< 0.001). Finally, public facilities strongly reduced (by 88%) the number of examinations booked during the first wave, compared to private healthcare facilities (p< 0.001).

Conclusion: This survey showed that public facilities appeared to be better prepared from an organizational point of view than private facilities. Rescheduling the examinations booked during the first COVID-19 wave was challenging and not always possible.