Patient Success Story

Marie Receives Personalized Care With Telehealth

I have been fearful of going back to the hospital due to my chronic condition. I am so grateful that a nurse is always watching over me.

- Marie

Marie_story_-image

Patient Age:
93 Years Old

Type of Care:
Home Health

Reason for Care:
Congestive Heart Failure (CHF)
End-stage Renal Disease
Degenerative Eyesight

Meet Marie

At 93 years old, Marie was battling congestive heart failure (CHF) and endstage renal disease (ESRD), along with degenerative eyesight. After experiencing severe difficulty breathing, Marie spent a week in the hospital receiving roundthe-clock care. Upon discharge from the hospital, Marie’s physicians referred her to a local home care agency to help her through recovery, teach her about her condition, and provide medication and symptom management.

Although Marie lives with her daughter, she is often alone at home for several hours each day while her daughter is at work. Understandably, Marie was concerned that she would not be able to manage her condition alone and was feeling overwhelmed by her conditions and the amount of information she needed to learn. Given Marie’s condition and history of hospitalizations, the home care agency assisting Marie recommended that she enroll in the telehealth program.

Creating a Care Plan for Marie

Marie’s home care nurse explained to Marie that the telehealth program would allow the nurse to monitor her health 24/7. Using the tablet and devices provided by the home care agency, Marie would be able to record her vital signs, including weight, heart rate, and o2 saturation on the tablet. As well, with the tablet, Marie could receive medication reminders, answer symptom surveys, watch educational videos, and video conference with her nurses. All of Marie’s information she recorded on the tablet would be shared with her nurses at the home care agency enabling them to support Marie in real time.

With the help of her nurses, Marie understood that the telehealth program would learn about her condition and help her feel more comfortable. However, Marie did not want to have any additional equipment in her home and wanted to use her own. The nursing team helped Marie download PatientConnect Mobile on her iPad which her daughter had previously taught her how to use. Through the PatientConnect Mobile application, Marie could access the educational videos, medication reminders, and all the telehealth features using her own device.

Marie Patient Success Story
Annie and Marie

Life After Telehealth

A week after beginning the telehealth program, Marie’s nurses noticed a 7lb weight increase within 24 hours. Immediately upon noticing the change, Marie’s nurse initiated a video call to perform a visual assessment and triage her symptoms.

While Marie sounded in good spirits on the phone, speaking in clear sentences with no signs of shortness of breath, she did have edema in her left leg. Marie explained to her nurse that she usually has edema in her left leg due to previous surgeries but she did feel it was worse that day. Following the video conference, Marie’s nurse spoke to her physician, describing her weight gain and symptoms, prompting Marie’s physician to alter her medication to help reduce the swelling in her leg.

Within a few days, Marie’s weight stabilized and the edema in the left leg diminished. Because of the 24/7 monitoring by Marie’s nurse, Marie was able to avoid an emergency room visit or hospital readmission and recover in the comfort of her home. When discharged from the home health agency, Marie thanked her nurses for the care and the education they provided through telehealth, telling them she believes she can live to be 100!

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