Background A significant number of COVID-19 patients have been treated using invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV). The ability to evaluate functional status of COVID-19 survivors early on at ICU and hospital discharge may enable identification of patients who may need medical and rehabilitation interventions. Methods The modified “Mental Status”, ICU Mobility, and Barthel Index scores at ICU and hospital discharge were tabulated for 118 COVID-19 survivors treated with invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV). These functional scores were compared with pre-admission functional status, discharge durable medical equipment, discharge medical follow-up recommendation, duration on IMV, duration post-IMV, demographics, comorbidities, laboratory tests, and vital signs at ICU and hospital discharge. Results The majority of COVID-19 IMV patients were not functionally independent at hospital discharge (22% discharged with cane or rolling walker, 49% discharged with durable medical equipment, and 14% admitted to a rehabilitation facility), although 94% of these patients were functionally independent prior to COVID-19 illness. Half of the patients were discharged with supplemental oxygen equipment. The most prevalent medical follow-up recommendations were cardiology, vascular medicine, pulmonology, endocrinology, and neurology with many patients receiving multiple medical follow-up recommendations. Functional status improved from ICU discharge to hospital discharge (p < 0.001). Worse functional status at hospital discharge was associated with longer IMV duration, older age, male sex, higher number of comorbidities, and the presence of pre-existing comorbidities including hypertension, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and immunosuppression (p < 0.05, ANOVA). Conclusions The majority of IMV COVID-19 survivors were not functionally independent at discharge and required significant follow-up medical care. The COVID-19 circumstance has placed constraints on access to in-hospital rehabilitation. These findings underscore the need for prospective studies to ascertain the short- and long-term sequela in COVID-19 survivors.

Introduction Although patients with severe COVID-19 are known to be at high risk of developing thrombotic events, the effects of anticoagulation (AC) dose and duration on in-hospital mortality in critically ill patients remain poorly understood and controversial. The goal of this study was to investigate survival of critically ill COVID-19 patients who received prophylactic or therapeutic dose AC and analyze the mortality rate with respect to detailed demographic and clinical characteristics. Materials and methods We conducted a retrospective, observational study of critically ill COVID-19 patients admitted to the ICU at Stony Brook University Hospital in New York who received either prophylactic (n = 158) or therapeutic dose AC (n = 153). Primary outcome was in-hospital death assessed by survival analysis and covariate-adjusted Cox proportional hazard model. Results For the first 3 weeks of ICU stay, we observed similar survival curves for prophylactic and therapeutic AC groups. However, after 3 or more weeks of ICU stay, the therapeutic AC group, characterized by high incidence of acute kidney injury (AKI), had markedly higher death incidence rates with 8.6 deaths (95% CI = 6.2–11.9 deaths) per 1,000 person-days and about 5 times higher risk of death (adj. HR = 4.89, 95% CI = 1.71–14.0, p = 0.003) than the prophylactic group (2.4 deaths [95% CI = 0.9–6.3 deaths] per 1,000 person-days). Among therapeutic AC users with prolonged ICU admission, non-survivors were characterized by older males with depressed lymphocyte counts and cardiovascular disease. Conclusions Our findings raise the possibility that prolonged use of high dose AC, independent of thrombotic events or clinical background, might be associated with higher risk of in-hospital mortality. Moreover, AKI, age, lymphocyte count, and cardiovascular disease may represent important risk factors that could help identify at-risk patients who require long-term hospitalization with therapeutic dose AC treatment.

This study investigated pre-COVID-19 admission dependency, discharge assistive equipment, discharge medical follow-up recommendation, and functional status at hospital discharge of non-critically ill COVID-19 survivors, stratified by those with (N = 155) and without (N = 162) in-hospital rehabilitation. “Mental Status”, intensive-care-unit (ICU) Mobility, and modified Barthel Index scores were assessed at hospital discharge. Relative to the non-rehabilitation patients, rehabilitation patients were older, had more comorbidities, worse pre-admission dependency, were discharged with more assistive equipment and supplemental oxygen, spent more days in the hospital, and had more hospital-acquired acute kidney injury, acute respiratory failure, and more follow-up referrals (p < 0.05 for all). Cardiology, vascular medicine, urology, and endocrinology were amongst the top referrals. Functional scores of many non-critically ill COVID-19 survivors were abnormal at discharge (p < 0.05) and were associated with pre-admission dependency (p < 0.05). Some functional scores were negatively correlated with age, hypertension, coronary artery disease, chronic kidney disease, psychiatric disease, anemia, and neurological disorders (p < 0.05). In-hospital rehabilitation providing restorative therapies and assisting discharge planning were challenging in COVID-19 circumstances. Knowledge of the functional status, discharge assistive equipment, and follow-up medical recommendations at discharge could enable appropriate and timely post-discharge care. Follow-up studies of COVID-19 survivors are warranted as many will likely have significant post-acute COVID-19 sequela.

This study sought to identify the most important clinical variables that can be used to determine which COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the general floor will need escalated care early on using neural networks (NNs). Analysis was performed on hospitalized COVID-19 patients between 7 February 2020 and 4 May 2020 in Stony Brook Hospital. Demographics, comorbidities, laboratory tests, vital signs and blood gases were collected. We compared those data obtained at the time in emergency department and the time of intensive care unit (ICU) upgrade of: (i) COVID-19 patients admitted to the general floor (N = 1203) vs. those directly admitted to ICU (N = 104), and (ii) patients not upgraded to ICU (N = 979) vs. those upgraded to the ICU (N = 224) from the general floor. A NN algorithm was used to predict ICU admission, with 80% training and 20% testing. Prediction performance used area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic analysis (ROC). We found that C-reactive protein, lactate dehydrogenase, creatinine, white-blood cell count, D-dimer and lymphocyte count showed temporal divergence between COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the general floor that were upgraded to ICU compared to those that were not. The NN predictive model essentially ranked the same laboratory variables to be important predictors of needing ICU care. The AUC for predicting ICU admission was 0.782 ± 0.013 for the test dataset. Adding vital sign and blood-gas data improved AUC (0.822 ± 0.018). This work could help frontline physicians to anticipate downstream ICU need to more effectively allocate healthcare resources.

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Medical specialty usage of COVID-19 survivors after hospital discharge is poorly understood. This study investigated medical specialty usage at 1–12 and 13–24 months post-hospital discharge in critically ill and non-critically ill COVID-19 survivors. This retrospective study followed ICU ( N = 89) and non-ICU ( N = 205) COVID-19 survivors who returned for follow-up within the Stony Brook Health System post-hospital discharge. Follow-up data including survival, hospital readmission, ongoing symptoms, medical specialty care use, and ICU status were examined 1–12 and 13–24 months after COVID-19 discharge. “New” (not previously seen) medical specialty usage was also identified. Essentially all (98%) patients survived. Hospital readmission was 34%, but functional status scores at discharge were not associated with hospital readmission. Many patients reported ongoing [neuromuscular (50%) respiratory (39%), chronic fatigue (35%), cardiovascular (30%), gastrointestinal (28%), neurocognitive (22%), genitourinary (22%), and mood-related (13%)] symptoms at least once 1–24 months after discharge. Common specialty follow-ups included cardiology (25%), vascular medicine (17%), urology (17%), neurology (16%), and pulmonology (14%), with some associated with pre-existing comorbidities and with COVID-19. Common new specialty visits were vascular medicine (11%), pulmonology (11%), and neurology (9%). ICU patients had more symptoms and follow-ups compared to the non-ICU patients. This study reported high incidence of persistent symptoms and medical specialty care needs in hospitalized COVID-19 survivors 1–24 months post-discharge. Some specialty care needs were COVID-19 related or exacerbated by COVID-19 disease while others were associated with pre-existing medical conditions. Longer follow-up studies of COVID-19 survivor medical care needs are necessary. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11739-023-03195-x.

This study investigated in-hospital rehabilitation and functional status at discharge of non-critically ill COVID-19 survivors with respect to pre-admission dependency status, discharge durable medical equipment, discharge medical follow-up recommendation, hospitalization duration, demographics, comorbidities, laboratory tests, and vital signs at hospital discharge. Comparisons were made between COVID-19 survivors who received rehab (N=155) and those who did not (N=162). Functional scores were obtained using the “Mental Status”, ICU Mobility, and modified Barthel Index scores at hospital discharge. Relative to the non-rehab patients, rehab patients were older, had more comorbidities, had worse pre-admission dependency status (p<0.05), were discharged with more assistive equipment and supplemental oxygen (p<0.001), spent more days in the hospital (p<0.001), had more follow-up referrals (p<0.05) with cardiology, vascular medicine, urology, and endocrinology being the top referrals, and had more secondary in-hospital diagnosis of AKI and acute respiratory failure. Functional scores of non-critically ill COVID-19 survivors were impaired at discharge and were associated with pre-admission dependency. Some functional scores were negatively correlated with age, hypertension, coronary artery disease, chronic kidney disease, psychiatric disease, anemia, and neurological disorders (p<0.05). These findings warrant follow up of COVID-19 survivors as many survivors will likely have significant post-acute COVID-19 sequela.

Background A significant number of COVID-19 patients have been treated using invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV). The ability to evaluate functional status of COVID-19 survivors early on at ICU and hospital discharge can help minimize ICU-acquired weakness, promote rapid functional recovery, and improve quality of lifeMethods The modified “Mental Status”, ICU Mobility, and Barthel Index scores at ICU and hospital discharge were tabulated for 118 COVID-19 survivors treated with invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV). These functional scores were compared with pre-admission functional status, discharge durable medical equipment, discharge medical follow-up recommendation, duration on IMV, duration post IMV, demographics, comorbidities, laboratory tests, and vital signs at ICU and hospital discharge. Results The majority of COVID-19 IMV patients were not functionally independent at hospital discharge (22% discharged with cane or rolling walker, 49% discharged with durable medical equipment, and 14% admitted to a rehabilitation facility), although they were prior to COVID-19 illness. Half of the patients were discharged with supplemental oxygen equipment. The most prevalent medical follow-up recommendations were cardiology, vascular medicine, pulmonology, endocrinology, and neurology with many patients receiving multiple medical follow-up recommendations. Functional status improved from ICU discharge to hospital discharge (p<0.001). Worse functional status at hospital discharge was associated with longer IMV duration, older age, male sex, higher number of comorbidities, and the presence of pre-existing comorbidities including hypertension, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and immunosuppression (p<0.05, ANOVA). Conclusions The majority of IMV COVID-19 survivors were not functionally independent at discharge and required significant follow-up medical care. The COVID-19 circumstance has placed constraints on access to in-hospital rehabilitation. These findings underscore the need for prospective studies to ascertain the short- and long-term sequela in COVID-19 survivors.