Building and Sustaining Organizational Capacity for the Rehabilitation Profession to Support Long COVID Care

Abstract

The persistent postacute effects of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) illness are and will continue to negatively impact the growing numbers of people recovering from acute viral illness. Rehabilitation providers are critical members of the interdisciplinary care team that screen for, evaluate, treat, and manage Long COVID sequalae. However, current models of outpatient rehabilitation may lack the organizational capacity to effectively treat a large volume of patients at a higher frequency and longer duration currently indicated under emerging clinical consensus. Thus, the purpose of this special communication is to outline challenges in organizational capacity to scaling Long COVID care through illustrative examples.