Authors (including presenting author) :
Lau WLC(1), Kwan KK(1), Tsui TS(1), Ko WN(1), Lam WT(1)
Affiliation :
Occupational Therapy Department, Kowloon Hospital
Introduction :
During the 5th wave of COVID-19 pandemic, local in-patient COVID-19 service framework and post discharge case management approach by occupational therapist (OT) were adopted to enhance our services quality according to the needs of COVID-19 patients.
Objectives :
1. Review the outcomes of COVID-19 rehab service framework during in-patient phase
2. Explore the impact of long COVID symptoms on the discharged COVID-19 patients and future service direction according to their needs in community phase
3. Evaluate the effectiveness of case management approach by OT under integrated care and discharge support (ICDS)
Methodology :
A total of 1054 COVID-19 patients were referred to OT in-patient service from March to April 2022 in KH. 824 subjects were finally recruited for data analysis. Their demographic characteristics, discharge destination, OT interventions, functional outcomes, mortality & readmission rate were explored. Total 22 patients recovered from COVID-19 under OT case management in ICDS from March to May 2022 were recruited for review. The impact of long COVID symptoms, functional outcomes and readmission rate were assessed.
Result & Outcome :
For in-patient phase, OT service coverage for COVID-19 patients was over 80% in KH. 33% were old aged home (OAH) cases, 56% were home cases with caregiver and 11% were home alone cases. The top 3 comorbidities of the COVID-19 in-patients were respiratory disease (32%), cardiac disease (12%) and neurological disease (12%). The mortality rate of OAH cases were 3.5 times higher than home cases. The median length of stay was 15 and 20 days for OAH and home cases respectively. The top 3 focuses of OT interventions for COVID-19 in-patients were ADL, cognitive and discharge planning. Modified Barthel Index (MBI) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment Hong Kong version (HK-MoCA), as outcome measures indicated improvement in their self-care and cognitive functions upon discharge especially for the home cases. The recruited COVID-19 in-patient data were retrieved by CDARS to trace on their readmission rate of the first 28 days after discharge. The overall readmission rate was 22.7% and the major reas
