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Patients’ Experiences of “Long COVID” in the Community and Recommendations for Improving Services: A Quality Improvement Survey
INTRODUCTION: “Long COVID” is a multisystem disease that lasts for 4 or more weeks following initial symptoms of COVID-19. In the UK, at least 10% of patient report symptoms at 12 weeks following a positive COVID-19 test. The aims of this quality improvement survey were to explore patients’ acute an...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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SAGE Publications
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8427922/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34488505 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/21501327211041846 |
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author | Razai, Mohammad Sharif Al-Bedaery, Roaa Anand, Laxmi Fitch, Katherine Okechukwu, Hannah Saraki, Teniola M. Oakeshott, Pippa |
author_facet | Razai, Mohammad Sharif Al-Bedaery, Roaa Anand, Laxmi Fitch, Katherine Okechukwu, Hannah Saraki, Teniola M. Oakeshott, Pippa |
author_sort | Razai, Mohammad Sharif |
collection | PubMed |
description | INTRODUCTION: “Long COVID” is a multisystem disease that lasts for 4 or more weeks following initial symptoms of COVID-19. In the UK, at least 10% of patient report symptoms at 12 weeks following a positive COVID-19 test. The aims of this quality improvement survey were to explore patients’ acute and post-acute “long” COVID-19 symptoms, their experiences of community services and their recommendations for improving these services. METHODS: Seventy patients diagnosed with COVID were randomly selected from 2 large socially and ethnically diverse primary care practices. Of those contactable by telephone, 85% (41/48) agreed to participate in the quality improvement survey. They were interviewed by telephone using a semi-structured questionnaire about community services for COVID-19 patients. Interviews lasted 10 to 15 minutes. RESULTS: Forty-nine percent of patients reported at least 1 post-acute COVID-19 symptom. The most common were severe fatigue (45%), breathlessness (30%), neurocognitive difficulties (such as poor memory), poor concentration and “brain fog” (30%), headaches (20%), and joint pain (20%). Many patients felt isolated and fearful, with scant information about community resources and little safety netting advice. Patients also expected more from primary care with over half (56%) recommending regular phone calls and follow up from healthcare staff as the most important approach in their recovery. CONCLUSIONS: In line with patients’ requests for more support, the practices now routinely refer patients with long COVID to an on-site social prescriber who explores how they are getting on, refers them to the GP or practice nurse when required, and sign posts them to support services in the community. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8427922 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | SAGE Publications |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-84279222021-09-10 Patients’ Experiences of “Long COVID” in the Community and Recommendations for Improving Services: A Quality Improvement Survey Razai, Mohammad Sharif Al-Bedaery, Roaa Anand, Laxmi Fitch, Katherine Okechukwu, Hannah Saraki, Teniola M. Oakeshott, Pippa J Prim Care Community Health Original Research INTRODUCTION: “Long COVID” is a multisystem disease that lasts for 4 or more weeks following initial symptoms of COVID-19. In the UK, at least 10% of patient report symptoms at 12 weeks following a positive COVID-19 test. The aims of this quality improvement survey were to explore patients’ acute and post-acute “long” COVID-19 symptoms, their experiences of community services and their recommendations for improving these services. METHODS: Seventy patients diagnosed with COVID were randomly selected from 2 large socially and ethnically diverse primary care practices. Of those contactable by telephone, 85% (41/48) agreed to participate in the quality improvement survey. They were interviewed by telephone using a semi-structured questionnaire about community services for COVID-19 patients. Interviews lasted 10 to 15 minutes. RESULTS: Forty-nine percent of patients reported at least 1 post-acute COVID-19 symptom. The most common were severe fatigue (45%), breathlessness (30%), neurocognitive difficulties (such as poor memory), poor concentration and “brain fog” (30%), headaches (20%), and joint pain (20%). Many patients felt isolated and fearful, with scant information about community resources and little safety netting advice. Patients also expected more from primary care with over half (56%) recommending regular phone calls and follow up from healthcare staff as the most important approach in their recovery. CONCLUSIONS: In line with patients’ requests for more support, the practices now routinely refer patients with long COVID to an on-site social prescriber who explores how they are getting on, refers them to the GP or practice nurse when required, and sign posts them to support services in the community. SAGE Publications 2021-09-07 /pmc/articles/PMC8427922/ /pubmed/34488505 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/21501327211041846 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). |
spellingShingle | Original Research Razai, Mohammad Sharif Al-Bedaery, Roaa Anand, Laxmi Fitch, Katherine Okechukwu, Hannah Saraki, Teniola M. Oakeshott, Pippa Patients’ Experiences of “Long COVID” in the Community and Recommendations for Improving Services: A Quality Improvement Survey |
title | Patients’ Experiences of “Long COVID” in the Community and Recommendations for Improving Services: A Quality Improvement Survey |
title_full | Patients’ Experiences of “Long COVID” in the Community and Recommendations for Improving Services: A Quality Improvement Survey |
title_fullStr | Patients’ Experiences of “Long COVID” in the Community and Recommendations for Improving Services: A Quality Improvement Survey |
title_full_unstemmed | Patients’ Experiences of “Long COVID” in the Community and Recommendations for Improving Services: A Quality Improvement Survey |
title_short | Patients’ Experiences of “Long COVID” in the Community and Recommendations for Improving Services: A Quality Improvement Survey |
title_sort | patients’ experiences of “long covid” in the community and recommendations for improving services: a quality improvement survey |
topic | Original Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8427922/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34488505 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/21501327211041846 |
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