Patient’s Name: Lucy H.
Patient’s Age: 80-years-old
Admission Date: 12/21/18
Admitted From: GSH
Discharge Date: 2/23/19
Discharged To: Home
Length of Stay: 30 days
Reason for Stay: Admitted to Good Samaritan Hospital for exacerbation of Stage 3 COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). Patient also has a diagnosis of coronary artery disease, diabetes, anemia, hypertension, and heart failure.

Patient lives in the community in her own private apartment. Patient has home oxygen that she has been using mostly continuously due to her COPD.

Details of Experience:

80-year-old, Lucy Huffman, arrived at our community in December of 2018. Upon arrival, she was immediately greeted by our concierge, to ensure that she felt welcomed to our community, and to discuss what would make her stay most comfortable.

After settling into her new surroundings, Lucy was assessed by our physical, occupational, and respiratory therapists. A set of goals and a specific therapy program was set up to help Lucy return back home successfully. We were excited for her, as after her evaluation, therapy sessions were soon to begin.

Occupational therapy had Lucy beginning with minimal assistance during her morning routine. Upon discharge, she was able to complete all her hygiene independently. With dressing in her early sessions, she needed minimal assist but as she progressed, she worked her way up to do it all independently.

For physical therapy, she focused on her ambulation. In her early sessions, she needed contact guard to ambulate. As she progressed, she was able to do short distances independently and longer distances with minimal supervision. Throughout her therapy sessions, her biggest issue was her shortness of breath and her exercise tolerance.

Her respiratory therapist worked alongside Lucy with both therapy disciplines to help improve her respiratory status. As the therapy sessions went on, she was progressing toward being able to be weaned off her continuous oxygen. She reached the point where she could go almost the entirety of her waking hours on room air.

Unfortunately, due to her COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), which leaves her easily susceptible to respiratory ailments, Lucy had an exacerbation of her COPD. Lucy had to go back on oxygen continuously. Her exacerbation was a setback to all the progress she had made. These types of situations are unfortunate but are somewhat common in a patient with COPD.

Due to daily monitoring and assessments, we were able to identify the exacerbation early before her progression was untreatable in this setting. Interventions and treatments were put into place by the respiratory therapist and her primary doctor to help improve her respiratory status.

Therapy sessions focused on rebuilding her exercise tolerance and decreasing her shortness of breath. Day-to-day and session-to-session, Lucy’s outcomes started to improve and she was able to progress to the point where we could start planning to return home.

We ordered a Rollator for her to use at home to assist ambulation and facilitate an independent and active lifestyle. We finished out last week of therapy with some final training for her return home.

Lucy was visited daily by the concierge. He was constantly checking up on her and asked her if she needed anything. The highlight of her days was lunch with a fellow resident. She always made sure to go out early for lunch and always stayed late to talk with her friend. She enjoyed the daily fun packs and especially the word games.

Lucy was discharged from our community, eagerly ready to return back home! Lucy spent her time here working hard toward her goals and is ready to use what she learned to help her have a long successful return back to her life. We wish you the best, Lucy!