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Abstract
Objective A proportion of those recovering from COVID-19 are likely to have significant and ongoing symptoms, functional impairment and psychological disturbances. There is an immediate need to develop a safe and efficient discharge process and recovery programme. Established rehabilitation programmes are well placed to deliver a programme for this group but will most likely need to be adapted for the post-COVID-19 population. The purpose of this survey was to rapidly identify the components of a post-COVID-19 rehabilitation assessment and elements of a successful rehabilitation programme that would be required to deliver a comprehensive service for those post-COVID-19 to inform service delivery.
Design A survey comprising a series of closed questions and a free-text comment box allowing for a qualitative analysis.
Setting Online survey.
Participants Multiprofessional clinicians across specialties were invited to take part.
Results 1031 participants responded from a broad range of specialties. There was overwhelming support for an early posthospital discharge recovery programme to advise patients about the management of fatigue (95% agreed/strongly agreed), breathlessness (94%) and mood disturbances (including symptoms of anxiety and depression, 92%). At the time point of 6–8 weeks, an assessment was considered important, focusing on a broad range of possible symptoms and supporting a return to work. Recommendations for the intervention described a holistic programme focusing on symptom management, return of function and return to employment. The free-text comments added depth to the survey and the need ‘not to reinvent the wheel’ but rather adapt well-established rehabilitation services to individually tailor needs-based care with continued learning for service development.
Conclusion The responses indicate a huge interest and the urgent need to establish a programme to support and mitigate the long-term impact of COVID-19 by optimising and individualising existing rehabilitation programmes.
- rehabilitation medicine
- respiratory medicine (see thoracic medicine)
- rehabilitation medicine
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Footnotes
Twitter @AmyBarradell, @bolton_char
Contributors SJS, NJG, CB GJ and JRH contributed to the conception and design of the study. LP, ACB and SJS analysed the data. SJS and ACB interpreted the data and drafted the manuscript. All authors critically revised the manuscript for significant intellectual content and insight, had full access to all of the data, and take responsibility for the integrity and accuracy of the data analysis. In addition, all authors gave final approval of the manuscript version for publication. SJS and ACB were responsible for the overall content as guarantors.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests All authors have completed the Unified Competing Interests Form at http://www.icmje.org.coi_disclosure.pdf. SJS reports grants from Actegy and Pfizer outside the submitted work. GJ reports grants from Astra Zeneca, Biogen, Galecto and GlaxoSmithKline; personal fees from Boehringer Ingelheim, Daewoong, Galapagos, Heptares, Promedior and Roche; non-financial support from NuMedii; grants and personal fees from Pliant; non-financial support from Redx; and others from Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis outside the submitted work.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Ethics approval Ethical approval was not required for this survey from either the UK Health Research Authority or leading research and development centre. Completion of the survey was an indication of willingness to participate and implied consent. We set no threshold for response over such a short period of time but were anticipating around 300 responses across a range of healthcare professionals to allow the questionnaire to be considered robust and representative of those in the field.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data availability statement All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information. No additional data are available.
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