The COVID-19 pandemic and vulnerable older persons: impact of a public health emergency on nursing homes and geriatric rehabilitation

Abstract

COVID-19 suddenly posed a serious threat to the health of vulnerble older persons. Parat 1 of this thesis described results of the ‘COVID-19 MINUTES study’ in which minutes of outbreak teams in Dutch nursing home organisations were studied for a year and a half. In addition, panel conversations were held with nursing home staff and resident representatives. Nursin homes took many differnt measures to prevent infections and to maintain the well-being of residents. Different measures brought differnt challenges and needed to be adapted tot he local situation. Part 2 of this thesis describes results of the ‘EU-COGER study’, in which recovery from COVID-19 in geriatric rehabilitation was investigated in ten European countries. In general, the post-acute COVID-19 patients in geriatric rehabilitation recoverd well. This was regardless of how fit they were at admission to geriatric rehabilitation. This indicated the importance of an inclusive triage policy for geriatric rehabilitation care after COVID-19. There were differences between countries in how quickly the COVID-19 patients recovered and how geriatric rehabilitation care was organized.