Cedars-Sinai Launches Recovery Program To Help COVID-19 'Long-Haulers'
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles is launching a recovery program aimed at helping a growing number of so-called "long hauler" COVID-19 patients.
While many COVID-19 patients recover without any noticeable issues, Cedars-Sinai says many others experience continuous, ongoing symptoms, including shortness of breath, headaches, fatigue, brain fog, anxiety, depression, or loss of taste or smell. So the West Los Angeles medical facility has responded to medical experts who say a recovery program is urgently needed.
The multidisciplinary COVID-19 Recovery Program will employ an infectious disease or pulmonary medicine expert to evaluate patients in person, then refer them to the appropriate specialist. Patients in the program will also have access to clinical research trials and contribute to ongoing study of the long-term health effects of COVID-19.
"Given the sheer number of people worldwide who have had COVID-19 – more than 90 million – if even 1% experience symptoms beyond three months, that is a huge number of patients who need help," Dr. Catherine Le, an infectious disease specialist with Cedars-Sinai Medical Group, said in a statement. "For some patients, we are the first physicians they've seen in person since their diagnosis."
The recovery program works closely with Cedars-Sinai's Smidt Heart Institute's Post-COVID-19 Cardiology program, for patients with a heart issue associated with the virus, and the Department of Medicine's Post-ICU Clinic, for discharged ICU patients who develop respiratory and neurological problems.
To be eligible for Cedars-Sinai's COVID-19 Recovery Program, patients have had COVID-19, be referred by a doctor and have persistent symptoms.