The COVID-19 pandemic and the mandated cessation of surgical procedures for a substantial portion of the 2020 year placed tremendous strain, both clinically and financially, on the health-care system in the United States. As a surgical specialty that accounts for nearly a quarter of all hospital net income, the revenue recovery of orthopaedic service lines (OSLs) is of particular importance to the financial recovery of their broader health-care institutions. In this American Orthopaedic Association (AOA) symposium report, the OSL leaders from 4 major academic medical institutions explain and reflect on their approaches to address their revenue deficits. Cost-reduction strategies, such as tightening budgets, adopting remote-work models, and limiting costs of human capital, were vital to stabilizing departmental finances at the onset of the pandemic, while strategies that focused on expanding surgical volume, such as those that improve efficiency in clinical and surgical settings, were important in growing revenue once elective procedures resumed. Institutional policy, payer administrative procedures, and the overall context of an ongoing public health crisis all placed limitations on recovery efforts, but engaging relevant stakeholders and working with available resources helped OSLs overcome these limitations. Due to clear strategic actions that were taken to address their deficits, each OSL represented in this AOA symposium saw substantial improvement in its year-end financial performance compared with its financial status at the end of the period of mandatory cessation of elective surgical cases.

COVID-19 大流行以及 2020 年大部分时间强制停止外科手术，给美国的医疗保健系统带来了巨大的临床和财务压力。作为占所有医院净收入近四分之一的外科专业，骨科服务线 (OSL) 的收入恢复对其更广泛的医疗机构的财务恢复尤为重要。在本次美国骨科协会 (AOA) 研讨会报告中，来自 4 家主要学术医疗机构的 OSL 领导人解释并反思了他们解决收入赤字的方法。削减成本的策略，如紧缩预算、采用远程工作模式和限制人力资本成本，对于在大流行爆发时稳定部门财务至关重要，而专注于扩大手术量的策略，如改善手术量的策略，一旦选择性手术恢复，临床和外科环境的效率对于增加收入非常重要。机构政策、付款人管理程序以及持续的公共卫生危机的整体背景都对恢复工作造成了限制，但让相关利益相关者参与并利用可用资源有助于 OSL 克服这些限制。由于采取了明确的战略行动来解决赤字问题，参加本次 AOA 研讨会的各 OSL 的年终财务业绩与强制停止择期手术病例结束时的财务状况相比都有了大幅改善。