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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Med.
Sec. Intensive Care Medicine and Anesthesiology
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1513121
This article is part of the Research Topic Clinical Application of Telemedicine for Postoperative Rehabilitation and Conservative Treatment in Orthopaedics View all articles

Transitioning to a virtual post-intensive care rehabilitation service in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: results of multidisciplinary focus-groups

Provisionally accepted
Fiona Howroyd Fiona Howroyd 1,2*Natacha Earle Natacha Earle 1Jonathan Weblin Jonathan Weblin 1David Mcwilliams David Mcwilliams 3Mark Raven Mark Raven 1Niharika A Duggal Niharika A Duggal 2Zubair Ahmed Zubair Ahmed 1,2*Tonny Veenith Tonny Veenith 4*
  • 1 University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, United Kingdom
  • 2 University of Birmingham, Department of Inflammation and Ageing, School of Infection, Inflammation and Immunology, Birmingham, United Kingdom
  • 3 University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, Coventry, United Kingdom
  • 4 Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust, Wolverhampton, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Telehealth has vastly expanded since the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic and has been widely implemented as an efficient, cost-effective and accepted means of health care delivery, including rehabilitation. Although telerehabilitation is recommended across national guidelines, there is a lack of practical guidance to support clinicians with virtual adaptations.Aims: This study aims to describe the key components of a safe and effective virtual post-intensivecare rehabilitation service, through qualitative exploration.Methods: This is a qualitative study using focus-group design based upon grounded theory. This study is nested within a service development project, taking place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Focus groups were held after the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic with key stakeholders from the physiotherapy and critical care departments of a large tertiary hospital in the United Kingdom.Semi-structured questions were used to guide discussions, led by a facilitator and scribe. Transcripts were thematically analysed using an exploratory inductive approach by two researchers then crosschecked.Findings: Three focus groups were attended by 12 multidisciplinary stakeholders, including six physiotherapists, two administration staff members, two critical-care follow-up nurses and two critical care consultants. Thematic analysis identified seven critical elements for virtual adaptations:1) safety and risk assessment, 2) assessment and outcome measures, 3) virtual platform, 4) resources and equipment, 5) exercise programme adaptation, 6) exercise monitoring and safety, and 7) privacy and information governance.Conclusions: Our findings provide practical recommendations for virtual rehabilitation service development and delivery.

    Keywords: telehealth, telerehabilitation, Physiotherapy, Physical Therapy, SARS-CoV-2

    Received: 17 Oct 2024; Accepted: 06 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Howroyd, Earle, Weblin, Mcwilliams, Raven, Duggal, Ahmed and Veenith. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Fiona Howroyd, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, United Kingdom
    Zubair Ahmed, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, United Kingdom
    Tonny Veenith, Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust, Wolverhampton, United Kingdom

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.