Physical dysfunction problems often are overlooked in the care of older, frail patients with acute heart failure. But these patients find greater functional and quality of life benefits from early, transitional, and progressive rehab when compared with usual care, a new trial has found.
In one group of hospitalized COVID patients, 82% had self-reported or clinically diagnosed neurological symptoms. “Even if the pandemic is completely eradicated, we are still talking about millions of survivors who need our help,” one investigator says.
Despite an aging population and safer surgical procedures, the frequency of abdominal surgery is decreasing among older adults — particularly in those age 85 and older, according to researchers from the University of Chicago Medicine.
Most patients in post-acute care settings reap functional benefits and see reduced rehospitalization from physical therapy and occupational therapy, finds a new study across 1.4 million Medicare beneficiaries.
Rural Medicare beneficiaries are less likely than their urban peers to receive care from either a nursing home or home health agency following acute hospitalization, conclude investigators with the University of Washington’s Rural Health Research Center.
When compared with heart failure and pneumonia patients, discharged COVID-19 patients had 40% to 60% higher odds of ten-day readmission or death, investigators report.
Clinicians should be aware of preoperative opioid exposure levels to ensure older patients’ safe recovery, and to help determine the dosage of post-surgical painkillers, researchers say.
Anemia is extremely common in adults who are hospitalized for critical illness, and often persists for at least a year following discharge, a new study finds.
High-intensity rehabilitation is a safe way to accelerate functional improvements in skilled nursing facility residents who are medically complex, investigators say.
Most adults with COVID-19 continued to suffer debilitating symptoms after recovering, an Italian study has found. Fully 87% reported experiencing at least one symptom more than one month after leaving the hospital.
