Submit a Research Survey Request

Pending approval from the Research Operations Sub-Committee, NCS members are allowed the opportunity to post surveys for voluntary participation from the NCS membership. Surveys are reviewed by the sub-committee on a monthly basis.

Active Surveys

COVID-19 Neurocritical Care Survey

In many hospitals, patients with serious neurologic illnesses that require intensive care are placed in a dedicated Neurocritical Care Unit (NCCU) and are cared for by a neurointensivist along with neurocritical care-trained nurses. This care team is important and has been shown to improve neurological outcomes in patients with brain and spinal cord injuries (Jeong, 2019) (Kim, 2020). This changed after a large number of people tested positive for the COVID-19 virus in 2020. Many of these “pre-vaccine” cases required hospitalization along with the utilization of intensive care units and critical care teams. Hospitals around the country experienced maximum ICU bed capacity and there was even a projected link between limited ICU availability and an increase in COVID-19 deaths (Zebrowski, 2020). Hospital leadership looked for solutions to open up as many ICU beds as possible. For Tufts Medical Center in Boston, MA, a decision was made to displace the NCCU and convert it into a COVID-19 specific unit. As a result, dedicated neurocritical care nurses were re-located to other units and patients in the NCCU were moved to different floors around the hospital.In addition to respiratory symptoms, COVID-19 can be associated with neurological symptoms such as impaired consciousness (Laurent, 2020). Patients who had a neurologic complaint and were COVID-19 positive would have been admitted to a separate locationthan a COVID-19 negative neurocritical care patient. Separating neurocritical COVID-19 positive and negative patients is not known to be beneficial or necessary.

Disinformation circulated by media outlets regarding COVID-19 transmission played a role in keeping patients away from hospitals in 2020. Even though ICUs around the country were at maximum capacity, there were significant reductions in stroke hospital admissionsand delays in emergency care for stroke patients (Wu, 2020). The delay in care could have negatively impacted neurocritical care patient outcomes during this time.

The Tufts Medical Center study team has developed the hypothesis that other hospitals around the world had similar experiences during 2020. They also hypothesize that decentralizing care for these patients may have led to more negative patient outcomes than previous years. In combination with the existing Tufts Medical Center NCCU database, this survey will provide insight into how other hospitals handled the first COVID-19 wave and could provide guidance to hospital leadership for future pandemic waves.

Target Audience: All Members

Duration: 5 minutes
ContactDeborah Green-LaRoche, MD
Survey closes: June 31, 2023

Take the Survey

 

Past Approved Surveys

Name of Survey
Survey Opened
Contact Name

Utilization and Impact on Fellowship Training of Non-Physician Advanced Practice Providers in Neuro-Intensive Care Units of Academic Medical Centers: A Survey of Neurocritical Care Program Directors and Trainees
July 7, 2021
Marc Alain Babi

Systems-Based Hospital Practices of Acute TBI
April 7, 2021
Roy Poblete

Early Post-traumatic Seizure Prophylaxis: A Worldwide Survey on Current Practice
April 7, 2021
Gretchen Brophy

Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS)/Critical Care Ultrasound (CCU)
April 7, 2021
Judy Ch'ang

NCS' Assessment of the Advance Practice Provider (APP) Response to COVID-19
September 11, 2020
Lindsay Marchetti

COVID-19 and Telehealth in the Intensive Care Unit Setting
September 11, 2020
Sarah Nelson

Acute Stroke Management of Tandem Occlusions during Mechanical Thrombectomy (MT) Survey
August 23, 2020
Santiago Ortega-Gutierrez

Perceptions of Health Care Providers Worldwide Regarding COVID-19 Pandemic & Its Impact on Patient Care, Resources, and Clinical Education
April 28, 2020
Sarah Wahlster

Practice Changes for Acute Ischemic Stroke During COVID-19
April 16, 2020
Tamara Strohm

Moyamoya Disease Survey of International Perioperative Practices

March 13th, 2020

Carolina B Maciel

Hypotension in the ICU
January 16, 2020
Ward van der Ven

Career Satisfaction
October 7, 2019
Shyam Rao

Sedation Management in Patients with Severe Traumatic Brain Injury Survey
August 13, 2019
Victoria Mcredie

Drug Shortages
July 18, 2019
Emily Durr

Laboratory Values that Preclude Brain Death Diagnosis
July 9, 2019
David Lerner

Determination of the Inter Rater Reliability of the modified Fisher Scale
July 2, 2019
Christopher Melinosky

Pharmacogenomics of Calcium Channel Blocker Medication in Stroke and Subarachnoid Hemorrhage
May 16, 2019
David Freeman

Survey Submission Requirements

Pending approval from the Research Operations Sub-Committee, NCS Members are allowed the opportunity to post surveys for free-will participation from the NCS Membership. NOTE: Surveys are reviewed by the Committee on a monthly basis. Following submission of the form you will receive a follow up email from NCS staff regarding whether your survey has been approved. NOTE: Survey submissions are usually reviewed and approved on a monthly basis. Please provide ample time for review before following up.

If you would like to be considered to have your survey to be posted, please review the following requirements:

  1. Review the NCS Policy and Procedures for research survey requests.
  2. Complete the required Submission Form below.
  3. If accepted, complete a Feedback Survey after the survey has closed.