Post-COVID-19 Management: Comprehensive Assessment at Post-COVID-19 Monitoring Centre

Objective: The 2019 Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is a novel disease that affects multiple systems. Several details about its long-term effects are unknown. Follow-up and early detection of post-COVID conditions could help improve outcomes. We established a multidisciplinary "Post-COVID-19 Monitoring Centre" in Istanbul University Medical School Hospital and aimed to introduce this centre to represent a model for centres that would provide post-COVID care. Materials and Methods: We outlined the multidisciplinary healthcare team professions, the schedule for organising the appointments and specific intervals, and the items of comprehensive assessment and the consultant services at the centre. Results: The first appointment for inpatients and outpatients are scheduled at first month after discharge and 1 month after symptoms have resolved, respectively, and at 3-month intervals thereafter unless necessitated more often. The specialists involved in post-COVID-19 care are internal medicine, respiratory medicine, infection disease, geriatrics and nutrition, psychiatry, public health medicine and consultant specialists (radiology, ophthalmology, gastroenterology, cardiology and neurology). Geriatricians come at the forefront as experts and case managers that can integrate and manage the multidisciplinary team because of their experience and practices in routine care. Conclusion: Comprehensive assessment and follow-up of COVID-19 recovery patients would help us understand the long-term consequences of the disease. We reveal that multidisciplinary management of COVID-19 survivors may greatly improve outcomes in several aspects. Moreover, we suggest that setting up similar centres for post-COVID-19 care contributes to the management of this pandemic globally.