Session Information
Session Title: AA 2022 Posters - Pandemic
Session Time: None. Available on demand.
Disclosures: Alvin Ng, MD: No financial relationships or conflicts of interest
Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a unique challenge for inpatient rehabilitation facilities to deliver safe and effective rehabilitation for patients recovering from COVID-19 and other rehabilitation diagnoses. There is a paucity of research assessing the effectiveness of inpatient rehabilitation on patients with COVID-19. The objective of this study was to compare post-acute rehabilitation outcomes of patients with debility and COVID-19 to outcomes of patients with debility only.
Design: Retrospective Cohort Study
Setting: Single inpatient rehabilitation facility
Participants: Patients admitted for debility from April 1, 2020 to July 30, 2020. COVID-19 status was determined by a positive PCR test during the acute care or inpatient rehabilitation hospitalization period.
Interventions: None
Main Outcome Measures: Differences in admission and discharge functional performance scores (GG scores) and length of stay were compared. Rehabilitation efficiency, the average increase per day in functional performance score, was calculated.
Results: 560 patients admitted for debility were reviewed. There were 83 (14.8%) patients admitted with COVID-19, who were on average 61 years old, male (55.4%), and African American (72.3%). Patients admitted with COVID-19 had a mean GG score gain of 26 points and median length of stay of 15 days. Patients admitted without COVID-19 had a mean GG score gain of 18 and median length of stay of 15 days. Compared to patients without COVID-19, patients with COVID-19 had a comparable length of stay but a significantly increased change in GG score at discharge (p < 0.001) and higher rehabilitation efficiency (p=0.001).
Conclusions: There was a significantly greater improvement in GG scores and rehabilitation efficiency for patients with debility and COVID-19 compared to patients with debility without COVID-19. Our findings suggest that patients with debility and COVID-19 benefit from acute inpatient rehabilitation and may be even more amenable to intensive therapeutic rehabilitation compared to patients with debility without COVID-19.
Level of Evidence: Level III
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
Ng A, Jow SL, Petriello MA, Malmut L, Doshi S, Thalla N. Outcomes of Acute Inpatient Rehabilitation for Debility and COVID-19 Infection [abstract]. PM R. 2022; 14(S1)(suppl 1). https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/outcomes-of-acute-inpatient-rehabilitation-for-debility-and-covid-19-infection/. Accessed May 29, 2025.« Back to AAPM&R Annual Assembly 2022
PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/outcomes-of-acute-inpatient-rehabilitation-for-debility-and-covid-19-infection/