A Tale of Two Institutions: COVID-19 Positive Rates in Asymptomatic Patients Pre-Screened for Spine Procedures and Surgeries in Los Angeles, California.

The current study shows that pre-procedure COVID-19 testing rates remains very low, and follows similar patterns of community rates. While pre-procedure testing increases the safety of elective procedures, universal COVID-19 pre-screening adds an additional barrier to receiving care for patients and increases cost of delivering care. A combination of pre-screening, pre-procedure self-quarantine, and consideration of overall community COVID-19 positivity rates should be further studied.