THE EFFECT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN GERIATRIC REHABILITATION SERVICES IN HOSPITALIZED PATIENTS

Abstract

During the Covid-19 pandemic since March 2020 in Indonesia, the geriatric rehabilitation services have some adaptations including telerehabilitation, no aerosol generating procedure, log-book for program evaluation, and caregiver as supervisor instead of therapists. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of changes in geriatric medical rehabilitation services during the pandemic on improving the functional status of geriatric patients at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital. This study is a descriptive analytic study using a cross-sectional design and a retrospective cohort. The study was conducted in June 2020 until April 2021. The subjects were all the geriatric rehabilitation patients who meet the inclusion criteria. The functional status was measured using six-minute walking test before the patients were discharged. As many as 28 subjects were involved. The mean age of the subjects was 61.89 years with 75% (21 subjects) was male. The underlying disease mostly was diabetes mellitus. The vital signs were within normal limit before and after the test. The result of the six-minute walking test showed that the average walking distances were 196.34 meters with VO2max 69.98 kg/mL/minute and 2.82 METs. This result means that all the subjects have capability to do the basic activities daily living. The Covid-19 pandemic made all of the health services did the changes especially in delivery their services including geriatric rehabilitation. This study showed that these changes still can improve the functional capacity of the patients as the outcome of rehabilitation programs.