Health systems launching care centers for COVID ‘long-haulers’
AS PATIENTS RECOVER from COVID-19, the medical community is discovering some continue to suffer from lingering symptoms and side effects weeks and even months after they test negative for the virus. Called COVID-19 “long-haulers,” their conditions include shortness of breath, dizziness, blood clots, fatigue, blurry vision, persistent headaches and even mental health challenges.
In response, some health systems— particularly ones based in areas hardest hit with cases—are building programs specifically to help these patients.
“As (COVID-19) patient volume grows, you are going to have more physicians realizing they need to build a multidisciplinary practice in order to treat all of these patients,” said Dr. Zijian Chen, an endocrinologist and medical director of Mount Sinai’s Center for Post-COVID Care in New York.
The appeal of creating a program specifically for post-COVID recovery is giving patients a single place they can go to address a variety of needs related to their recovery. At Atlantic Health System in New Jersey, a care coordinator provides an initial consult before the patient is set up with necessary specialists, such as pulmonologists, cardiologists, neurologists and physical therapists. A group of pulmonologists leads the program.
“You can imagine that for a patient who is variably afflicted by symptoms, how hard it could be to access the health system,” said Dr. Steven Sheris, president of Atlantic Medical Group. “We are trying to take that friction out of it and put the burden on us for coordination and seamless care.”
Atlantic Health launched its COVID Recovery Center in early October and so far about 25 patients have been referred there, said Dr. Fred Cerrone, a pulmonologist and co-director of the recovery center. Referrals come from primary-care physicians in Atlantic’s network and the pulmonologists who check in on former COVID-19 patients to see if they need additional care.
has created a designated schedule for the specialists to see referrals from the program to ensure patients aren’t waiting more than a few days. If physicians don’t have time for the additional caseload, they can’t be part of the program, Cerrone said, calling it a “requisite.”
Hackensack Meridian Health’s COVID Recovery Center in New Jersey is similar, but also focuses on research. All patients are asked to contribute tissue specimens to the system’s Center for Discovery and Innovation that will be used for research on genetic characteristics of patients who suffered moderate or severe symptoms of COVID-19. Additionally, cardiology practices involved in the center are also conducting research to understand cardiac disease in recovered COVID-19 patients.
“Our goals are twofold: one is to bring continued care to people in New Jersey who continue to suffer from this, and the second is to try to figure out what is going on with these patients,” said Dr. Laurie Jacobs, chair of internal medicine at Hackensack University Medical Center.
Health systems are unsure how long post-COVID recovery centers will be needed due to continued surges throughout the country and overall uncertainty about the virus’ lingering symptoms. Some patients only need a behavioral health consult, while others have persistent symptoms such as shortness of breath or heart palpitations.
Although much is still unknown about long-haulers, only about 5% to 10% of recovered patients continue to
● suffer from symptoms, Jacobs said.