Disclosures: David Tomajan, MD: No financial relationships or conflicts of interest

Objective: To assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on pediatric patients receiving physical and occupational teletherapy.

Design: SurveySetting : Outpatient therapy servicesParticipants : 24 pediatric patients with neurological disorders receiving rehabilitation services through California Children’s Services (CCS) in Northern California.

Interventions: Participants were contacted via telephone and asked a series of questions regarding their therapy services during the pandemic.

Main Outcome Measures: Participant measures included number of patients who stopped therapies, satisfaction with in-person therapy before the pandemic and with teletherapy during the pandemic, disadvantages of teletherapy, care differences between in-person and teletherapy, willingness to continue with teletherapy, and changes in patient function and behavior.

Results: Surveys were completed by 24 patients or their caregiver. Three out of 24 patients stopped therapies temporarily and nine stopped permanently. When asked to rate how well therapy concerns were addressed on a scale of one to five, with five being extremely satisfied, the mean value was 4.68 for in-person visits and 3.93 for teletherapy (t=2.077, p=0.048). The major disadvantages of teletherapy were technical difficulties, patients losing interest, and caregivers feeling inadequately trained to perform therapy tasks. All participants who had both in-person and teletherapy felt that in-person was superior to teletherapy. Only two out of 14 said they would continue therapy virtually. Five out of 23 felt the patient had a functional decline and twelve felt they had a behavior change.Conclusions: A large portion of pediatric patients receiving therapies stopped due to the pandemic. Teletherapy has a statistically significant lower satisfaction score in comparison to in-person therapies. Additionally, functional decline and behavioral changes were observed in many patients, possibly due to social distancing restrictions.

Level of Evidence: Level V

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PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/the-impact-of-covid-19-and-teletherapy-on-pediatric-rehabilitation-services/