• Charles D Kassardjian, Urvi Desai, Pushpa Narayanaswami, and AANEM Quality and Patient Safety Committee of the AANEM.
• Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, St. Michael's Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• Muscle Nerve. 2020 Jul 1; 62 (1): 30-33.

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated cancelation of elective or nonurgent contact with the healthcare system, including nonurgent nerve conduction studies and electromyography (electrodiagnostic [EDX] studies). The definitions of elective and nonurgent are physician judgments, and often are not straightforward. Clinical care must be provided to help our patients in a timely manner, while keeping them, healthcare personnel, and the community safe. Benefit/risk stratification is an important part of this process. We have stratified EDX studies into three categories: Urgent, Non-urgent, and Possibly Urgent, in an effort to help clinicians triage these referrals. For each category, we provide a rationale and some examples. However, each referral must be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, and the clinical situation will evolve over time, necessitating flexibility in managing EDX triaging. Engaging the referring clinician and, at times, the patient, may be useful in the triage process.© 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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