Abstract

BackgroundIn the wake of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, people need to practice social distancing in order to protect themselves from SARS-CoV-2 infection. In such stressful situations, remote cardiac rehabilitation (CR) might be a viable alternative to the outpatient CR program.MethodsWe prospectively investigated patients hospitalized for heart failure (HF) with a left ventricular ejection fraction of < 50%. As for patients who participated in the remote CR program, telephone support was provided by cardiologists and nurses who specialized in HF every 2 weeks after discharge. The emergency readmission rate within 30 days of discharge was compared among the outpatient CR, remote CR, and non-CR groups, and the EQ-5D score was compared between the outpatient CR and remote CR groups.ResultsThe participation rate of HF patients in our remote CR program elevated during the COVID-19 pandemic. As observed in the outpatient CR group (n = 69), the emergency readmission rate within 30 days of discharge was lower in the remote CR group (n = 30) than in the non-CR group (n = 137) (P = 0.02). The EQ-5D score was higher in the remote CR group than in the outpatient CR group (P = 0.03) 30 days after discharge.ConclusionsRemote CR is as effective as outpatient CR for improving the short-term prognosis of patients hospitalized for heart failure post-discharge. This suggests that the remote CR program can be provided as a good alternative to the outpatient CR program.

Highlights

  • In the wake of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, people need to practice social distancing in order to protect themselves from SARS-CoV-2 infection

  • What kind of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) can we provide in this COVID-19 era? Is it possible to provide safe and effective CR for patients with cardiac disease in their own houses? Here, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our remote CR

  • The number of participants in the remote CR program increased after the onset of SARS-CoV-2 infections; after March 4, 2020, our hospital stopped providing outpatient CR services, and instead, the remote CR service was provided after discharge

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Summary

Introduction

In the wake of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, people need to practice social distancing in order to protect themselves from SARS-CoV-2 infection. In such stressful situations, remote cardiac rehabilitation (CR) might be a viable alternative to the outpatient CR program. We conducted careful outpatient CR, disinfecting the ergometer handles and Nakayama et al Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine (2020) 25:48 saddles with alcohol before and after each procedure. The government declared a state of emergency on April 7 and asked the general public, the healthcare professionals, and medical contributors to refrain from unnecessary hospital visits Due to this emergency declaration (ED), outpatient CR in most of the facilities has been interrupted.

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