Abstract
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has posed great challenges in inpatient rehabilitation services, not only to implement the preventative measures to avoid the spreading of the virus in a highly interactive, multidisciplinary setting but also to create a rehabilitation pathway for post-COVID-19 patients. The aim of this retrospective study was to describe the role of a digital and artificial intelligence platform (DAIP) in facilitating the implementation of changes in a rehabilitation service during the COVID-19 pandemic.Materials and Methods: We gathered qualitative and quantitative descriptors of the DAIP, including measures to assess its efficiency in scheduling therapy sessions, and staff satisfaction using two simple numeric rating scales and the System Usability Scale. We describe how the volume of activity and the quality of care of our rehabilitation service have changed when the DAIP was implemented by comparing the pre-COVID-19 and the pandemic periods for patients' [sex, age, co-morbidities, diagnosis, and Functional Independence Measure (FIM) gain] and service's (bed occupancy, patients' length of stay, and staff capacity) characteristics.Results: Bed occupancy and the impact of rehabilitation on patients' outcome remained stable between the two periods. The DAIP provided a qualitative support for goal setting from remote; 95% of the planned sessions were delivered; the time for scheduling and registering sessions dropped by 50%. Staff satisfaction was about 70% for the easiness and 60% for the usefulness, and the mean “usability” score was close to the cut off for sufficient usability (mean score 65 where 68 is the cut off).Conclusion: By applying the DAIP to rehabilitation treatment, it was shown that the management of rehabilitation can be efficiently performed even in the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff satisfaction reflected a good acceptance of the changes considering the turbulent changes and the stress burden occurring at the time of the pandemic.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic has posed great challenges in inpatient rehabilitation services, to implement the preventative measures to avoid the spreading of the virus in a highly interactive, multidisciplinary setting and to create a rehabilitation pathway for post-COVID-19 patients
In 2019, 34.8% of patients were admitted with a neurological diagnosis [of which 43% were stroke, 16% spinal cord injury (SCI), 14% Parkinson’s disease, 9% multiple sclerosis (MS), and 18% other diagnosis] and 65.2% with a musculoskeletal diagnosis
In 2020, 41.6% were admitted with a neurological diagnosis, 51.5% with a musculoskeletal diagnosis, and 7.2% post-COVID-19
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has posed great challenges in inpatient rehabilitation services, to implement the preventative measures to avoid the spreading of the virus in a highly interactive, multidisciplinary setting and to create a rehabilitation pathway for post-COVID-19 patients. Inpatient rehabilitation services had to introduce dedicated pathways for COVID-19 survivors in the post-acute phase, remaining with the more severe physical, emotional, and cognitive sequelae of the viral infection. Initially, these pathways have been modeled on the principle of respiratory rehabilitation in COPD and post-ITU syndrome [4], evidences are growing supporting the efficacy of rehabilitation interventions tailored for postCOVID-19 patients [5,6,7,8,9]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
