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Supplemental COVID Rehabilitation Activity Program

Need

Patients diagnosed and treated for COVID-19 are presenting with significant debilitation, weakness (especially of upper body), swallowing difficulty, and cognitive impairments; which is causing increased length of stay and lower functional status in the post critical phase and at time of discharge.

Goal

  1. Reduce negative effects of hospitalization and secondary damage from the virus; including delirium, weakness, fine motor impairments.
  2. Improve recovery time, recovery capacity, patient experience, and psychological wellbeing.
  3. Positively impact the goal of safe and efficient discharge to home.

Plan

Add additional rehabilitation time for patients with COVID-19; including activities based in speech therapy, physical therapy and occupational therapy. These visits are provided at a technician level of skill; in order to encompass all disciplines. Visits are a non-billed service.

Program Details

Each patient who is on this program will receive a 30 minute session, to include 10 minutes each of activities under these three categories:

Occupational Therapy Tasks

  • Upper Body Exercises
  • Fine Motor Tasks
  • Journaling
  • Orientation, Cognition Activities
  • ADL tasks (face washing, oral care, lotion, feeding, nail filing)

Physical Therapy Tasks

  • Lower Body Exercises (supine, seated, standing)
  • Balance (seated or standing)
  • Breathing Exercises
  • Transfers, Gait

Speech Language Pathology Tasks

  • Communication Board
  • Orientation, Cognition Activities
  • Exercises to Strengthen Swallow Function
  • Yoga/Breathing Exercises

Program Scope and Limitations

  • Completed by any member of rehab services: Inpatient SLP, OT, PT, or Outpatient PT, OT
  • Details of session are documented in Epic as a Progress Note
  • These are not standard skilled therapy notes and will likely not contain recommendations for discharge or diet modification
    • Refer to standard primary clinician notes for discharge and diet recommendations
  • Candidates for this program include: Patients who have been hospitalized for COVID-19 and present with deconditioning, weakness, cognition impairments related to their COVID-19 infection
    • Patients must be alert, medically stable, and willing to participate