The South African Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19) Surgical Outcomes Study (SACSOS)

SACSOS is a patient-centered prospective observational cohort study.

Initially, clinical teams in the South African private health care sector will be approached. In later phases of the study, recruitment will include eligible patients in the South African public health care sector.

Patient engagement and -participation will be sought during the recruitment process by engaging with the clinical team (surgeon, anaesthetist, hospital clinical manager) for individual patient care (at a micro level); in data collection using a patient-centric platform; and in the follow up after surgery.

Participation from health care providers will be in a team-based approach, including a surgeon, an anaesthetist and the hospital manager at each specific center. A call for collaboration will be extended to hospital management groups, individual hospital managers, and professional surgical and anaesthesia societies. A core group of participating centers may be identified which provide surgical services in provinces with highest number of apparent COVID-19 transmission at the time.

The study will focus on patient participation with the web-based platform as the primary recruitment method. This will reduce the need for clinician input, and promote greater patient-centeredness. Patient participation and data capturing require internet access to the web-based platform.

The dataset is based on variables collected during the first COVIDSurg study. The data collected will include a patient perspective on urgency of surgery during the pandemic, and quality of life measures.