The AHA’s policy director, Rochelle Archuleta, spoke to Jim Prister, president and CEO of RML Specialty Hospital, AHA board of directors member and chair of AHA’s post-acute steering committee, and John Votto, DO, pulmonologist and former CEO of New Britain, Conn.-based Hospital for Special Care, to examine the role long-term hospitals have played for patients that continue to have COVID-19 symptoms, but no longer have the active COVID-19 virus.
Ten things to know about long-term hospitals’ role in treating post-acute COVID-19 patients:
- Dr. Votto said he defines acute long-haulers of the illness as the phase where symptoms last between four and 12 weeks. However, some patients are considered post-acute long-haulers, where their symptoms last more than 12 weeks.
- Dr. Votto said 87 percent of hospitalized COVID-19 patients continued to have symptoms at 60 days post-COVID-19.
- Around 10 percent of hospitalized patients who are discharged end up being rehospitalized, Dr. Votto said.
- Mr. Prister said that during the pandemic, many hospitals that referred patients to his long-term facility needed to relieve the growing demands on their ICU. RML began to treat a much higher level of active ICU patients.
- RML found that COVID-19 patients in the second wave were sicker and experienced longer recovery times. The hospital ended up having a waiting list to admit patients.
- RML found that 44 percent of all admissions across three programs are post-COVID-19 patients. Many of these patients require higher staffing levels and have been admitted with restraints and significant medication challenges.
- The length of stay has increased about two weeks in the last three and a half months for long-haul COVID-19 patients, Mr. Prister said.
- Patients are less likely to move to a skilled nursing facility because there is a lack of bed space. This creates a jam in patient flow and doesn’t allow for an opening for new patients from the ICU.
- Mr. Prister said the role of long-term hospitals has changed in the last few years. There is an agenda, he said, to affirm long-term hospitals are instrumental in the management of COVID-19 patients.
- Mr. Prister said that the pandemic has brought on new opportunities for long-term hospitals to identify what their role is in the next pandemic and their role in post-acute care moving forward.
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