PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitation
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Multicenter Study
Screening Testing for SARS-CoV-2 upon Admission to Rehabilitation Hospitals in a High COVID-19 Prevalence Community.
While planning for the care of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients during the pandemic crisis has dominated the focus of leaders of inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs), patients with injuries/illnesses unrelated to COVID-19 continue to need inpatient rehabilitation admission. To maintain a safe environment for all patients and staff, we established an admission screening plan of testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) to determine the presence of asymptomatic patients who were infected with the virus upon admission. ⋯ Admission testing to postacute centers for SARS-CoV-2 can help identify presymptomatic or asymptomatic individuals, especially in areas where COVID-19 is prevalent. Negative results, however, do not preclude COVID-19 and should not be used as the sole basis for patient management decisions.
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Multicenter Study
Telemedicine During COVID-19 for Outpatient Sports and Musculoskeletal Medicine Physicians.
The global pandemic due to SARS-CoV-2 has resulted in an expansion of telemedicine. Measures of quality and barriers for rapid use by patients and physicians are not well described. ⋯ In summary, rapid expansion of telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic was well-received by a majority of patients and physicians. This suggests feasibility in rapid expansion of telemedicine for other outpatient sports medicine practices.
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Clarifying the relationship between pain phenotypes and physical function in older adults may enhance screening and treatment for functional decline in primary care settings. ⋯ Among ambulatory, older primary care patients, more severe pain phenotypes are associated with neuromuscular impairments identified on physical testing and mobility limitations on validated measures.
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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has necessitated drastic changes across the spectrum of health care, all of which have occurred with unprecedented rapidity. The need to accommodate change on such a large scale has required ingenuity and decisive thinking. ⋯ Healthcare practitioners in New York City, the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States, were among the first to encounter many of these challenges. One of the largest lessons included learning how to streamline admissions and transfer process into an acute rehabilitation hospital as part of a concerted effort to make acute care hospital beds available as quickly as possible.