Safety, Feasibility, and Outcomes of Intensive Acute Rehabilitation Following Prolonged Hospitalization for Severe COVID-19: A Case Series

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES: Report safety, feasibility and outcomes of 30 patients undergoing acute rehabilitation following hospitalization for COVID-19 infection. DESIGN: Case Series. SETTING: Acute rehabilitation unit within a large, metropolitan academic hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty patients (ages 26-80) undergoing acute rehabilitation following hospitalization for complications from COVID-19 of which 90% required critical care and 83% required mechanical ventilation. INTERVENTIONS: Physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy within an acute rehabilitation unit. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Acute rehabilitation unit length of stay, therapy minutes per day, discharge destination, readmission to hospital from acute rehabilitation unit. RESULTS: The average acute rehabilitation unit length of stay was 11 days (ranging from 4-22 days). Patients averaged 165 minutes per day (ranging from 140- 205 minutes) total of physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy. Twenty eight of the 30 patients (93%) discharged home. One patient required readmission from the acute rehabilitation unit to the acute hospital. All 30 patients improved their functional status with acute rehabilitation. CONCLUSIONS: In this cohort of 30 patients, acute rehabilitation after severe COVID-19 was safe and feasible. Patients were able to participate in intensive rehabilitation with nearly all patients discharging to home. Clinically, acute rehabilitation should be considered for patients with functional limitations following COVID-19. Given 90% of our cohort required critical care, future studies should investigate the efficacy and effectiveness of acute rehabilitation following hospitalization for critical illness. Intensive rehabilitation shows promising potential to address functional impairments associated with COVID-19 requiring hospitalization. AUTHOR(S) DISCLOSURES: No disclosures noted by any author on this paper.