LAUSR

Abstract Prior studies on proning awake, non‐intubated patients with hypoxemic acute respiratory failure, as well as evolving study of similar COVID‐19 patients, coupled with experience and dramatic anecdotal evidence from the COVID‐19 pandemic, suggest the importance of proning all such patients with COVID‐19 to improve oxygenation and reduce respiratory effort. Literature and experience from healthcare teams in the midst of the pandemic suggest that any COVID‐19 patients with respiratory compromise severe enough to warrant admission should be considered for proning. We additionally suggest these patients should be considered for proning as well as ongoing patient re‐positioning (e.g. right lateral decubitus, seated, and left lateral decubitus positions). Figure 1 represents the proning and positioning instructions developed at New York City Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst, a large, inner‐city, tertiary public hospital in the epicenter of the COVID‐19 pandemic in New York City, and later adapted and utilized at facilities across the United States.