HLT 0231 - Mildred Mason: A Digital Health Professional Perspective

This case study focuses on Mildred Mason, a 68-year-old widow, who requires a discharge plan following hospitalization for fractures and a head injury. The team aims to integrate digital devices into her care to enable her to safely stay at home, addressing her reluctance to enter a long-term care facility. The solution discusses the main problems, including her diabetes and slow healing, and outlines the roles of various healthcare professionals in discharge planning and ongoing care. It recommends additional resources, emphasizes the role of a digital health professional in ensuring quality care and follow-up, and suggests digital resources such as digital X-ray devices. The study also includes advice for the patient on maintaining bone health and challenges team members to stay updated on advancements in digital health. Non-hospital-based healthcare programs are recommended to reduce hospital congestion, highlighting the digital health professional's role in transforming lives through quality healthcare and prevention education. The conclusion stresses the importance of adopting digital solutions and appointing staff to manage digital health issues for improved patient outcomes.

Running head: DIGITAL HEALTH PROFESSIONAL 1
CASE STUDY OF MILDRED MASON
Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Institution of Affiliation
Date

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Introduction
Mildred’s condition of having type one diabetes from the age of ten can be a major
problem in her state. Some of the symptoms that a person depicts when suffering from type one
diabetes involve being irritable or impatient, anger, weakness as well as having blurred vision.
Mildred falling into the bathing room might have been causing by her body weakness resulting
from effects of diabetes.
Similarly, the impatient character that she is having and stubbornness concerning being
admitted to the hospital for more care, probably are also consequences of the same disease.
Moreover, this people with type one diabetes have anxiety in any situation of life and thus the
reason why Mildred feels that the healthcare providers have a plan to warehouse her in the
hospital. Nevertheless, due to her old age and the fact that she lives alone, strategic plans are
supposed to be made to ensure that she becomes healthy and independent by use of digital
measures that will get an outlined on this paper (Brinkman, 2017).
Main problems
The patient has a problem in recovering the fractures faster because of her body condition
has she has type one diabetes. Research shows that people are suffering from diabetes
experiences difficulties in the healing of wounds and any other injuries due to the weakening of
the immune system. Mildred has also been forgetting to monitor her blood sugar, for the last one
week which increases the tendency to depict the effect of diabetes (DiMeglio, Evans-Molina, &
Oram, 2018).
Additionally, old age can also interfere with her healing process, and feeling of weakness
contributed diabetes. The interprofessional team has a big challenge in deciding when to

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discharge the person and who will be taking care of Mildred since she lives alone. The time that
Mildred can access hospital care when she is at home is three hours only per week which is very
little about her condition. Coming up with a digital way of handling Mildred’s case is also a
problematic issue among the professionals in charge of her healthcare (Postacchini & Cinotti,
2014).
Professionals involved in discharge planning of Mildred
Discharge planning is an interprofessional tactic to continuously provide care to the
patient which involves process such as identifying, assessing, setting a goal, planning,
implementing, coordinating and finally evaluation of the result. Since continuity in health care
requires good coordination among the healthcare team, the following professionals should be
involved in planning: the hospital liaison nurse, the case manager, clinical care coordinators,
social workers, and inpatient unit’s nurse, occupational therapists, physiotherapists as well as the
primary patient nurse (Heath, Sturdy, & Cheesley, 2010). The mentioned professional are for
consultations by the hospital staff as well as monitoring of discharge and implementation of
discharge policy to guarantee continuity of healthcare. The discharge planning professionals will
coordinate with the patient, healthcare staff, the family or friends, resources and services to
enhance the change of patient from hospital to the community or even to other care sectors in a
personalized, time-saving, appropriate cost and contemporary style (Ambrosino & Vitacca,
2018).
Health care providers involved in the on-going care Mildred
The patients’ needs a physiotherapist who has specialized in dealing with fractures to
continue helping Mildred recover from the fractures as well as maintaining and restoration of the

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injured parts to normal. A dietitian nurse is also part of this care whose role will be monitoring
the diet of the patient since already she has diabetes and in sickness condition that she is in, she
cannot be able to take care of herself. Psychotherapist and dietitian nurse is the most important
since they are the ones to deal with patient one on one setting. They will be visiting a patient
regularly for treatment and give feedback to the discharge planning committee concerning the
progress of the patient (Tefera, Lehrman, & Conway, 2016).
Additional resources needed for discharge to be successful
A schedule is indicating the specified period that the patient needs a visit. The schedule
should indicate the materials and type of medicine to administered to a patient with time.
Another material is a list of the food types that the patient is supposed to take with a clear
indication of the amount need and the best time for consumption. Dietary list for the patient is
important because the friends providing food to the patient may not be aware of the right foods
to give to the patient but with the help of the hospital diet list, they can be able to follow the
correct dietary. Appropriate crutches should also be part of discharge resource because they help
the patient to move with reduced weight and walk if it is at the leg position and for the arms or
any other fractured part. Crutch is vital as they are mostly the instrument that healthcare
providers can use to get feedback concerning the healing process of the patient depending on
how easy they can move around with them.
Role of a digital health professional
A digital health professional should devise the best ways of handling the discharge
process in this scenario whereby the resources to be used by the patient are so advance and
effective than the ones used before. For instance, if the crutches are very rough, a digital health

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profession should plan on the best ones and be given to this patient. Ensuring that the patient gets
proper to follow up and quality health services even at home by making sure that the nurses
allocated to care for that patient are during their duty well, and looking at the patient progress
report(Shaw, 2014). Device good plans of providing orthopedic care to the patient and avail all
the required materials for discharge to be successful. Implement durable medical equipment like
boots, casts, splints, and braces.
Recommended digital resources
Introduction of digital X-ray devices the can help the doctor to have an instant insight
through digital images so that they can be in a position to keep on monitoring the fracture
without interfering with the injured part. Additionally, I recommend acquiring medical
equipment that are of high quality and provide comfortable moments to the patient when using
them(Penny & Spiegel, 2014).
Explaining the digital health profession role
My advice to Mildred, the patient, is on how to maintain her health and have strong
bones. Through recommending to her to consume substances that are calcium enriched as well as
those having vitamin D and C. The level of estrogen hormone production drops with age for
women, and this makes their bones brittle and becomes fragile easily due to the decrease of
estrogen that helps the bone to retain calcium. Bone weakening and brittle condition are called
osteoporosis. Also, l could talk about the importance of physical activities that helps the bones to
acquire more strength and have the ability to support the weight of the body(Flint & Cryer,
2010).

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For the team members, I can challenge them to continue getting updated on the new
thing in the health sector that comes through innovation every day. Digital medical facilities and
equipment usage need individuals who are motivated and interested to know changes occurring
within the field of health (Alenezi, Hayes, & Lawrence, 2016). Also, encourage the team
members to undergo further studies to make discoveries that can assist in advancing of the health
services to be rendered to the patient in need. Non-hospital based health care program and the
benefits of such a program is another issue that I can recommend and discuss. Non-hospital
health care program helps to reduce the number of patients’ admission to hospitals, hence
minimizing congestions that can make the hospital unconducive working environment. The
program also reduces frequent visiting of the hospital rooms by a patient having minor cases that
can be handled best at the places where they are much more comfortable (Lim, 2016). I
recommend that the team develop strategies that can be used to provide people with healthcare at
any other place apart from hospitals. As a digital health professional, the main role is to ensure
the transformation of people live through quality health care services and prevention education to
all. Similarly, through the invention of a better way of easement towards the achievement of set
goals of health organization (Pistorius, 2017).
Conclusion
The essays have focused on the treatment and discharge plan for Mildred a patient
suffering from fractures in her ankle and wrist. All the matters concerning a successful discharge
and assurance of proper health care addressed in the essay. I recommend that all the healthcare
organizations to adopt the digital ways that have been developed and even appoint one of the
staff who will be in charge of digital issues of the health. Digital related issues include a change
of a certain drug to a more advanced one, facility, equipment as well as data keeping methods by

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use of computer soft wares. Attaining of organization goals does not only rely on the number and
effort of the health staff but also the availability of the facilities of high quality. Furthermore,
even the skills to handle that equipment to get the required outcome contributes a lot in health
success.
References
Alenezi, M., Hayes, A., & Lawrence, G. (2016). Effectiveness of movement imagery on hip
abductors muscle strength: results from a randomised controlled trial and implications for
musculoskeletal physiotherapy. Physiotherapy.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physio.2016.10.376
Ambrosino, N., & Vitacca, M. (2018). The patient needing prolonged mechanical ventilation: A
narrative review. Multidisciplinary Respiratory Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40248-
018-0118-7
Brinkman, A. K. (2017). Management of Type 1 Diabetes. Nursing Clinics of North America.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cnur.2017.07.001
DiMeglio, L. A., Evans-Molina, C., & Oram, R. A. (2018). Type 1 diabetes. The Lancet.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31320-5
Flint, L., & Cryer, H. G. (2010). Pelvic fracture: The last 50 years. Journal of Trauma - Injury,
Infection and Critical Care. https://doi.org/10.1097/TA.0b013e3181ef9ce1
Heath, H., Sturdy, D., & Cheesley, A. (2010). Discharge planning: A summary of the
Department of Health’s guidance Ready to go? Planning the discharge and the transfer of

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patients from hospital and intermediate care. RCN Publishing Company Ltd.
https://doi.org/10.1038/213324a0
Lim, T. K. (2016). Edible Medicinal and Non-Medicinal Plants. Edible Medicinal and Non-
Medicinal Plants. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7276-1
Penny, J. N., & Spiegel, D. A. (2014). Chronic osteomyelitis in children. In Global Orthopedics:
Caring for Musculoskeletal Conditions and Injuries in Austere Settings.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1578-7_31
Pistorius, C. (2017). Developments in emerging digital health technologies. DeltaHealth.
Postacchini, R., & Cinotti, G. (2014). Vertebral body augmentation in osteoporotic vertebral
compression fractures. In Minimally Invasive Surgery of the Lumbar Spine.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5280-4
Shaw, D. (2014). Advocacy: The role of health professional associations. International Journal
of Gynecology and Obstetrics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijgo.2014.08.002
Tefera, L., Lehrman, W. G., & Conway, P. (2016). Measurement of the patient experience:
Clarifying facts, myths, and approaches. JAMA - Journal of the American Medical
Association. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2016.1652

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