Early clinical experience of a large hospital trust virtual COVID-19 follow up clinic

ABSTRACT

Introduction A Virtual Covid-19 Follow-up Clinic was designed in response to the need to review a large number of in-patients, at a large hospital trust, recovering from Covid-19 but without any significant increase in resources. Methods Patients complete a structured online/telephone symptom and psychological health questionnaire and have a chest x-ray 12 weeks after their illness. These results, and their medical records, are reviewed asynchronously by the medical team in a virtual clinic. Patients are then triaged to further virtual review, telephone review, face to face review, or are discharged. All patients receive comprehensive written information to aid their recovery. Results During the first 8 weeks of the service, 388 patients have completed the questionnaire (63% online) and been reviewed. Current symptoms are shown in figure 1. The questionnaire has identified the holistic needs of patients and allowed triaged follow-up with 122 discharged and 53 urgent face-to-face review appointments completed. 25 CT pulmonary angiogram scans were arranged for patients with typical symptoms of pulmonary emboli;no thromboembolic disease was identified. Conclusion This early experience of a new service has highlighted 5 learning points.