Pediatric Surgical Wait Priority Score (pSWAPS): Modifying a Health System's Adult-Based Elective Surgery Prioritization System for Children's Surgery During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Development and validation of pSWAPS, a pediatric-specific scoring system (0-120 points) adapted from an adult model to prioritize elective surgical cases during COVID-19. Applied across two hospital campuses over two months, the system successfully triaged 389 procedures using resource, patient, and urgency factors, enabling safe reintroduction of elective pediatric surgery during the pandemic.