Avoiding ICU admission through enhanced connected care monitoring

By using Enhanced Connected Care, we avoided ICU for an 81-year-old with septic encephalopathy.
Quick actions, like oxygen therapy, improved the patient, leading to discharge in just 7 days.

Patient History

An 81-year-old male with a medical history of diabetes and hypertension presented with
complaints of generalized weakness following a recent episode of acute gastroenteritis. On
examination, the patient was found to be drowsy but arousable on call and hemodynamically
stable.

Diagnostic Findings

A BioFire GI Panel was conducted, revealing a positive result for E.coli Shiga-toxin. Despite
normal CT imaging findings, a provisional diagnosis of septic encephalopathy was made, leading
to the patient’s admission to the wards.

Connected Care Implementation:

The patient was connected to Enhanced Connected Care with Life Signals Patch to monitor vital
signs and provide real-time data for prompt intervention.

Desaturation Episode:

• Three days after admission, the patient experienced desaturation with a low saturation level
  of 78%.
• The command center team promptly alerted the nursing staff and the attending doctor.
• The patient was started on 2L of oxygen via nasal cannula to address the low saturation
  levels.

Tachycardia Episode

Two hours later, another critical alert indicated tachycardia with a heart rate of 178/min.
The nursing staff was immediately alerted, and a 12-lead ECG was performed.
Cardiologist consultation was sought, leading to the initiation of beta-blocker therapy for
heart rate management.

Outcome

With appropriate and timely management, including oxygen therapy and the initiation of a
beta-blocker, the patient showed symptomatic improvement. Remarkably, the patient was discharged
on the 7th day without the necessity for intensive care unit (ICU) admission, highlighting the
effectiveness of the integrated care approach.