Methodist Hospital program provides help and support to former patients with long recovery symptoms

Indianapolis, Indiana – Millions of people around the world who had been infected with COVID-19 and recovered started to report that they were still experiencing some of the well-known symptoms months after the infection. That’s how the term “Long Covid” was born. Long Covid is now defined as “experiencing symptoms for three months or more after infection.”

According to recently published data from the U.S. Census Bureau and National Center for Health Statistics after observing more than 41,000 Covid-19 patients, more than 17% of women have had long Covid at some point during the pandemic, compared with 11% of men. In addition, the data shows that only 1.3% of men had developed severe long covid that significantly limited their normal activities, compared to 2.4% of women.

The Journal of the American Medical Association recently conducted a study that shows that poor memory or brain fog, fatigue, shortness of breath, and loss of smell are the most common long Covid symptoms. People who have these symptoms need more time to fully recover and get their lives back to normal.

Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis is offering a specialized program to help people who have long COVID-19 symptoms or who are still experiencing symptoms after being discharged from an intensive care unit.Memory, mood, strength, sleep, and/or quality of life are some of the most common symptoms that appear in patients after suffering a major medical or surgical illness.

IU Health’s ICU Survivor Center program has already helped more than 150 people since its launch in 2020. The program was initially created to help former ICU patients and their caregivers, long before long Covid became a thing. However, since long Covid patients are experiencing similar symptoms, the program might be utilized to help these patients too.

What makes this program special is the fact that doctors at the clinic prepare a custom treatment plan for every patient depending on their condition and symptoms. According to the Medical Director of the ICU Survivor Center, Dr. Sikandar Khan, the clinic provides multidisciplinary care similar to the care patients received while being treated at the hospital.

The service is offered to patients admitted to an IU Health hospital or from other hospitals. This also includes patients who have been admitted to the ICU due to Covid-19. The custom plan for every patient is developed by experts from multiple departments, including critical care nursing, pharmacy, pulmonary critical care, spiritual support, mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy, and physical, occupational and speech therapy.

For more details about the program, please follow this link.