Piedmont Opens COVID-19 Recovery Clinic

ATLANTA — Recovering from COVID-19, but can’t shake the lingering symptoms? Piedmont Healthcare is now offering comprehensive treatment for those who were able to free themselves of the virus but are still suffering from its often debilitating after-effects.

Piedmont’s Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine Division has opened its COVID-19 Recovery Clinic at the Atlanta hospital Buckhead’s Brookwood Hills neighborhood.

“As we continue to learn more about COVID-19, we are starting to see a subgroup of patients we’re calling COVID long haulers,” Dr. Jermaine Jackson, M.D., a specialist in critical care medicine and the clinic’s pulmonary director, said in a statement. “These are patients who have cleared the initial infection, but are experiencing lingering residual issues.”

While the clinic offers relief for those who have beat the virus, the pandemic continues to claim lives and spread across the country and throughout Georgia. On Tuesday 170 Georgians died from COVID-19, and state public health officials recorded 4,943 new confirmed cases.

But those who overcome have an opportunity to get better if their symptoms persist.

The clinic uses “patient-centered” methods to help manage common COVID-19 complications, such as shortness of breath, coughing, grief, dizziness, short-term memory loss, anxiety, or issues with the heart, kidneys or nutrition, that can continue after shedding the virus, according to a statement from the hospital.

Piedmont opened the clinic in November for patients diagnosed with the virus and are no longer infected. It is open to even those who only suffered mild cases and didn’t have to be hospitalized.

“The mission of this Clinic is to offer COVID-19 patients a treatment pathway that is patient-centered and focused on managing common COVID-19 complications,” said Coy Lassiter, M.D., Chief of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine with Piedmont Physician Enterprise.

Visit the Piedmont Healthcare website to learn more about the clinic.