People hospitalized with COVID-19 can experience debilitating physical changes — extreme fatigue, difficulty breathing and muscle weakness, says April Pruski, M.D., a Johns Hopkins physiatrist (a medical doctor who specializes in rehabilitation from an injury or illness).

To maximize these patients’ physical recovery while in the hospital, Pruski and her colleagues in the Johns Hopkins Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) have implemented several new therapy approaches.

The approaches include using new metric-based criteria to determine the frequency of rehabilitation, allowing therapists to work virtually with patients via telemedicine, and securing negative pressure rooms for patients who are ready for inpatient rehabilitation but still require isolation.

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