Can Outpatient Rehabilitation Be Continued During the COVID-19 Pandemic? A Report from a Japanese Regional Medical University Hospital.

It reports one Japanese hospital, not multiple settings. It reports monthly average daily outpatient numbers, not total patient counts, therapy intensity, patient outcomes, or all reasons for nonattendance. The later return to prepandemic volumes occurred alongside vaccination, lifted orthopedic surgery restrictions, and removal of training-room time limits. No clusters were reported, but the paper does not describe how clusters were detected or compare with other departments. The authors state they could not investigate other hospitals because the hospital was not affiliated with a public institution. The authors state telemedicine rehabilitation was not covered by insurance in Japan and was not implemented.

No funding or conflict-of-interest declaration is given in the supplied text.

Do not read the return to prepandemic outpatient numbers as proof that the listed infection-control measures caused the recovery or that outpatient rehabilitation was safe for all patients. This is a single-hospital service report without patient outcomes, and volumes also changed after vaccination, lifted surgery restrictions, and removed time limits.