Table 1.

Need for care priority levels

Priority	Decision-making	Appropriate interventions	Representative case
A	Patient is clinically unstable (OR) Has a condition that puts the patient’s life at imminent risk (OR) A short delay would significantly alter the prognosis	It requires prioritizing immediate care and not deferring attention	A 78-year-old patient with an incident hip fracture A 70-year-old patient with an incident clinical vertebral fracture An 82-year-old patient on antiresorptive treatment with evidence of hypocalcemia
B	Patient is clinically stable (AND) Has very high fracture riska	Treatment should not be delayed, although if necessary, some interventions could be postponed for 1 to 2 months during the critical period of the pandemic	73-year-old patient with a major osteoporotic fracture during the previous year. A 65-year-old patient with a fracture while on chronic use of glucocorticoids at high doses A 68-year-old patient with several prevalent vertebral fractures on denosumab treatment during the 6 months since the previous denosumab dose
C	The patient is clinically stable (AND) Has risk factors or diagnosed osteoporosis, without recent history of fragility fracture, or other risk factors for imminent fracture	Some specific treatments or services can be deferred for some time until sanitary conditions allow, without negatively affecting the results as long as the patient’s clinical conditions remain unchanged	A 65-year-old patient, without previous fracture and a DXA scan acquired during the previous year with low bone mineral density values A 62-year-old osteoporotic patient on bisphosphonates treatment, without previous fracture

^aConsider patients with a recent fragility fracture (e.g., within the past 12 months), fractures while on approved osteoporosis therapy, multiple fractures, fractures while on drugs causing skeletal harm (e.g., long-term glucocorticoids), very low T-score (less than − 3.0), or a high risk for falls or history of recent injurious falls