As we plan how to restart our clinical operations, we seek to reimagine and recreate care delivery as the world around us has changed dramatically. Routine care, surgeries, and procedures have been on hold since mid-March, but our patients’ need for care has remained. As we reopen, we enact rigorous safety measures and prioritize the highest-need patients who were forced to delay care. Looking ahead, we present our strategy to “Restart, Reimagine, Recreate,” inspiring exciting ideas among our faculty and staff.
In mid-March, our center wrapped up ongoing fertility treatment cycles and put a hold on new ones. As director of oncofertility, I was able to continue emergency fertility preservation cycles for patients newly diagnosed with cancer at the height of the pandemic. These young women, with rare and aggressive tumors, had one chance to freeze eggs before urgent fertility-threatening cancer treatment.
But for virtually all other patients, fertility diagnostics and treatments have been delayed indefinitely. I worry that for some patients, this delay might prove to be too long.
After enacting extensive procedural and infection-control measures, our center has cautiously resumed treatment cycles, beginning with these very patients. Patients are immensely grateful, and many have said that the opportunity to restart treatment has been a point of light in a dark time.
Life will not be normal for a long time, if ever. But Columbia Fertility is negotiating a new normal, with urgency and a shared mission with our patients. The pandemic, while physically separating many families, has also brought many together—and redoubled many women’s and couples’ commitment to growing their families. And it is with enormous relief—our patients’ and our own—that we can move forward.
Paula Brady, MD, Director of Oncofertility at Columbia University Fertility Center and Assistant Professor of Ob/Gyn at NYP/CUIMC
April 27
Our General Ob/Gyns resume seeing in-person patients for certain types of follow-up exams, including colposcopies, fibroids, and IUD checks.
April 29
Blue Angels and Thunderbirds fly over NY in salute to essential workers.
Columbia University Fertility Center resumes egg freezing and freeze-all IVF cycles for all patients.
April 30
The department presents their strategy to “Restart, Reimagine, Recreate” at the monthly faculty meeting.
Governor Cuomo announces New York will hire thousands of contact tracers.
May 6
The department celebrates National Nurses Week, a recognition of the vital role nurses play in providing healthcare. On our daily calls, we hear reflections from Ob/Gyn nurses and also enjoy a Mardi Gras-themed Spirit Day.
May 8
Unemployment reaches 14.7%, the highest level since the Great Depression.
May 9
Three children die in New York from an inflammatory condition linked to COVID-19.
May 10
Confirmed worldwide cases surpass 4 million.
Being a healthcare provider and pregnant has been a unique way to experience the COVID-19 pandemic. Physically, my pregnancy has been smooth, and I’m grateful for that. But COVID-19 has cast a cloud of uncertainty over not just my pregnancy but the experience of mothers-to-be around the world.
When COVID-19 arrived in New York City, working in Ob/Gyn became, in some ways, a curse. We knew enough to understand how little we knew about the disease, which exacerbated the natural anxieties of both COVID-19 and pregnancy. I watched women go into labor alone, and my heart broke for them. As a first-time mom, I can’t imagine doing this without the support of a partner. The rational, grounded-in-science nurse practitioner on one shoulder is constantly in one ear, and the anxious and emotional mother-to-be is in the other.
As COVID-19’s wave crashes ashore, the former wins out. I am fueled by our patients’ gratitude for the care we provide during this crisis, whether it be talking a patient through her miscarriage management options or providing support and counseling for women who decide to terminate. I look forward to welcoming my little man in September and telling him how he was growing and thriving during times of COVID-19.
Ashley Tedone, NP, nurse practitioner in the Division of Family Planning in the Department of Ob/Gyn at NYP/CUIMC