The first ten days after hospitalization for Covid-19 can prove to be particularly insidious for those who have recovered from the disease. The results of a new study published in the journal indicate this Jama by a group of researchers from the University of Michigan and the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System who highlighted the higher risk of hospital readmission or death in patients with Covid-19 compared to those who were hospitalized for heart failure and pneumonia. In particular, the scholars have highlighted that Covid patients have 40% to 60% higher probability to incur a second hospitalization or to die in the first 10 days after discharge from the hospital compared to patients treated for the other two conditions.
First 10 days “at highest risk” for Covid patients
To arrive at this result, the researchers compared the post-hospital outcomes of almost 2 thousand patientsienti discharged after hospitalization for Covid with those of nearly 1,800 patients who ended up in hospital for pneumonia not caused by Covid-19 and another 3,500 patients who required hospitalization for heart failure. The observation indicated that, in the first two months, 9% of patients with Covid-19 discharged from the hospital did not make it and almost 20% required a new hospitalization.
“By comparing the long-term outcomes of patients with Covid-19 with those of other seriously ill patients, we see a higher risk pattern than usual right in the first and second week after discharge Said John P. Donnelly, first author of the study and epidemiologist at Michigan Medicine’s Department of Learning Health Sciences, the University of Michigan Medical Center. ORThe question to ask is what to do and how to design better discharge programs for these patients, how to tailor our communication and post-hospital care to their needs, and how to help caregivers prepare for and cope with these circumstances”.
With hundreds of thousands of people admitted to US hospitals for severe cases of Covid-19 and the problem of bed availability due to the increase in infections, the study suggests the need for special vigilance in the first days after discharge. “Our data – added Theodore Iwashyna, Ann Arbor Healthcare System intensive care doctor involved in the research – provide further evidence that Covid-19 it can trigger a number of equally serious problems as much as we see in other diseases. But the health response as well as the research are still not enough to plan a model that can help these patients who unfortunately take days, weeks and even months to recover from Covid-19.”.
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