Table 2.

Hospital preparedness to COVID-19 pandemic in Italy with differences among North, Center and South regions

	N = 299 (%)	North (%) N = 118 (40)	Center (%) N = 75 (25)	South (%) N = 106 (35)
Hospital rearrangement
Fully dedicated to COVID-19	30 (10)	21 (70)	3 (10)	6 (20)
Partially dedicated to COVID-19	216 (72)	85 (39)	58 (27)	73 (34)
Not involved in COVID-19 care	53 (18)	12 (23)	14 (26)	27 (51)
External facilities for proctologic surgery
Available for benign and oncologic cases	9 (3)	2 (22)	5 (56)	2 (41)
Available for oncologic cases only	46 (15)	17 (37)	15 (33)	14 (22)
Unavailable	244 (82)	99 (41)	55 (30)	90 (37)
Surgical consent form redesigned for
COVID-19+ patients	164 (55)	64 (39)	43 (26)	57 (35)
COVID-19– patients	177 (59)	72 (41)	44 (25)	61 (35)
Use of personal protective equipment in theatre with
COVID-19+ patients
Always	273 (91)	107 (39)	71 (26)	95 (35)
Case-by-case	21 (7)	9 (43)	4 (19)	8 (38)
Never	5 (2)	2 (40)	0	3 (60)
COVID-19– or untested patients
Always	176 (59)	78 (44)	41 (23)	57 (32)
Case-by-case	99 (33)	34 (34)	24 (24)	41 (41)
Never	24 (8)	6 (25)	10 (42)	8 (33)
Personal protective equipment readily available	202 (68)	92 (45)	51 (25)	59 (29)
All patients are tested for COVID-19 prior to surgery	215 (72)	93 (43)	55 (26)	67 (31)
Experience with patients refusing surgery	97 (32)	36 (37)	22 (23)	39 (40)
1–5 patients	41 (42)	18 (44)	7 (17)	16 (39)
6–10 patients	18 (19)	4 (22)	7 (39)	7 (39)
11–20 patients	14	4 (29)	2 (14)	8 (57)
> 20 patients	24	10 (42)	6 (25)	8 (33)
Current outcome of patients waiting for surgery or visits
Rescheduled until the end of pandemic	54 (18)	25 (46)	8 (15)	21 (39)
Rescheduled upon balance of risks and benefits	88 (29)	35 (40)	24 (27)	29 (33)
Rescheduled in 1–3 months according to the waiting list	41 (14)	16 (39)	10 (14)	15 (37)
Yet to be established	116 (39)	42 (36)	33 (28)	41 (35)