At a Glance:
Earl lived alone at home and had several hours of care throughout the day to help him manage medications and his chronic low blood pressure. Earl’s condition often hurt his mobility and left him at risk of falls, and he often experienced pain throughout the day.
Earl’s care hours were divided evenly between a private provider and care services from a leading home care agency. Due to using both private and agency caregivers, the information regarding Earl’s vitals, medication intake, and pain levels did not always pass properly from shift to shift.
System Findings:
- Insight sent indicating high risk of falls due to suspected dizziness possibly as a result of orthostatic hypotension.
- Suspected difficulty and pain with urination detected.
- Indication of burning during urination detected.
- Insight generated of suspected UTI.
- Suspected reduced appetite detected.
Data Driven Decisions:
Due to variations in symptoms throughout the day and multiple caregivers (both private and through Senior Helpers), the client was advised to consider increasing care hours to ensure proper medications were administered on an appropriate schedule.
Additionally, the client was interested in following Sensi’s recommendation to have a PT or OT evaluation to reduce fall risk, improve mobility and maximize continuity of care.
Sensi’s data pointed to a likely reduced appetite, possible orthostatic hypotension, possible dehydration, reduced urine output and UTI symptoms and one fall occurrence.
The agency used Sensi’s data to partner with the family and implement increased care hours to improve not only consistency with medications to keep pain at bay, but also to monitor blood pressure throughout the day. They also performed an OT evaluation which led to increased mobility which may increase bowel motility and modulate pain symptoms may lead to significant reduction in fall risk.
Impact:
Sensi’s analytics were able to pick up on key trends that pointed to gaps in Earl’s care.
The agency shared these insights with Earl’s family, and facilitated a team effort to ensure that Earl’s needs were met. Together they were able to increase care hours, as well as collaboration between caregivers and improved care with better symptom management.
These actions were instrumental in Earl’s ability to remain independent, and had a positive effect on his overall physical wellbeing and health.
