Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Ability of Surgical Residents to Successfully Complete Residency Caseload Requirements in Private Practice

A retrospective analysis of the surgical caseloads from five corporate-owned private specialty practices with American College of Veterinary Surgery (ACVS)-registered surgical residency programs was performed. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the ability for private practice ACVS residency programs to provide adequate case numbers to meet residency requirements was evaluated. The surgical caseload was divided into 6-month intervals beginning in September 2019 and ending August 2022. The overall, specific ACVS case log categories and emergency caseloads were compared. Cases were categorized using ACVS training standard definitions. An average of 12 ACVS residents enrolled across the five training programs, with 24,331 cases operated across all hospitals during the 3-year study period. There was no significant increase or decrease in average surgical caseload at any time interval compared with the pre-COVID-19 period. Surgical residents did experience an increased emergency caseload for a portion of the pandemic. However, the increased emergency demands on surgical residents during the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have resolved with time. There was a decrease in neurologic caseload that was seen at four of the five hospitals. Neurosurgical caseload may be more variable among surgeons and this study did not account for overall neurosurgical caseload available to residents. All other categories were adequate or remained consistent throughout the study period, with no evidence of impact from the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic also did not negatively impact resident surgical caseload with continued case volumes with exposure to all necessary procedures for resident requirements.