Regional Organization of the Rehabilitation Service in Coronavirus Epidemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemics has dramatically changed the organization of public rehabilitation services around the world. Rehabilitation managers and doctors have faced different challenges at all stages of patient management from acute departments to home, especially in the periphery of the country. Aim. To analyze and present the regional experience of rehabilitation system reorganization during pandemics. Materials and methods. The Southern region of Israel is a big part of the country with about one million of population. The Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation department at the Soroka University Hospital is a part of the regional rehabilitation network, and was forced to find optimal solutions to all kinds of organizational challenges from the first days of the crisis. Most of those solutions, which, in our opinion, showed their effectiveness in managing our patients in this confused situation are presented and discussed in the article. Results. COVID-19 pandemics crisis had mostly a negative input on the whole system organization. The normal regular flow of multistage rehabilitation process was interrupted, serious part of professional staff was out of system due to quarantine and pandemic restrictions. The whole system was forced to change the management algorithms very quickly, sometimes as an immediate response to everyday changes. However, some changes that have occurred in response to the changed conditions may have a positive impact on the work of the rehabilitation system in the future and will also be discussed in the article. Conclusion. Our regional professional situation, of sure, is a combination of local rehabilitation organization and characteristics of Israeli health system, and from that point of view it is quite unique. But the problems of periphery are almost the same in every country so our local experience can help professionals in other regions.