Conclusion
Our current global health crisis will continue to present new challenges
for providing high quality, efficient head and neck reconstructive care.
In providing care to cancer patients whose treatment often cannot be
postponed, we need to adapt our approach and thinking to optimize
patient outcomes and ensure provider safety.
Our current experience with the COVID-19 pandemic has stimulated a fair
amount of change in our clinical, research, and administrative practice.
It is forcing us to re-examine the urgency of our interventions and why
we do the things we do. At our institution, we have adopted a tiered and
multidisciplinary approach to our reconstructive decision making.
We hope that some of the change and introspection that has resulted may
lead to lasting quality improvement in our processes.