Coronavirus Recovery Program Helps Doctors Monitor Patients After They Return Home
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- For many recovering from the coronavirus, it's a roller coaster with symptoms getting better and worse, sometimes for weeks.
Now, a new program is monitoring patients at home to make sure they get care if they need it.
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Zinovy Baron is grateful to be back home with his daughter Rebecca. After experiencing fatigue and stomach issues, he had a stroke in late March.
"His words were slurred and he wasn't making much sense," Rebecca Baron said.
"I was taken to the hospital, and it's kind of blurry," Zinovy Baron said.
Tests revealed the coronavirus caused his stroke. Doctors are reporting similar cases nationwide.
"Not everybody, but some patients with COVID will form clots more easily," said Dr. Christopher Kellner, co-director of Mount Sinai's precision recovery program.
The program allows COVID patients like Zinovy Baron to be monitored at home.
Patients measure oxygen saturation, blood pressure and temperature daily.
Vitals are entered into an app, and then patients answer questions about symptoms. Health care providers also conduct telemedicine visits. The goal is to save the hospital for the sickest.
"Everybody's symptoms are going to worsen and get better and worsen again. So that's where precision recovery comes in. It's a way to track that symptom change, and to communicate with the patient as the symptoms change to give them advice on whether or not they need to come in," Kellner said.
CORONAVIRUS: NY Health Dept. | NY Call 1-(888)-364-3065 | NYC Health Dept. | NYC Call 311, Text COVID to 692692 | NJ Health Dept. | NJ Call 1-(800)-222-1222 or 211, Text NJCOVID to 898211 | CT Health Dept. | CT Call 211
Zinovy Baron received experimental convalescent plasma treatment.
"I would say a week into it, like, he was already feeling slightly better, you know, mentally he was coming back to his senses, his lab values were normalizing. Everything was just heading in the right direction," Rebecca Baron said.
After nearly three weeks in the hospital, the Baron family says it has a lot to celebrate, including Zinovy's 73rd birthday.
Doctors nationwide are seeing some younger COVID patients with no risk factors also showing signs of stroke. About 700 patients are currently enrolled in the precision recovery program.
