Device Clinic Management—Part 5: The Impact of Remote Monitoring Patient Education

by Rebecca Revell, BSN, RN, CCDS, PaceMate Director of Patient Communications

Success Depends on Patient Education

The clinical benefits of remote monitoring in the CIED patient population are well documented and scientifically supported. Quite simply, remote monitoring saves lives. But remote monitoring success often hinges on one basic question: Will patients uphold what clinical teams ask of them?

Various issues frequently prevent patients from successfully experiencing the advantages of remote cardiac monitoring. If patients never set up their monitors, leave their wireless transmitters unplugged, or do not have the necessary connections at home for their given device type to transmit data, they will never realize the clinical benefits of remote monitoring.

Helping Patients with Compliance

Conquering these device use barriers can eliminate frustration for both patients and clinical teams. Ideally, the patient education process begins prior to device implant. It is important to set realistic and well-informed expectations with the patient and patient’s family about remote monitoring function and cost, as well as the rationale for remote monitoring of their prospective implant.

But patient education should continue past the implant procedure and into the clinic follow-up visits, with consistent messaging from providers, device reps, and clinic staff. When this education process breaks down or the communication is not effective, patients are more likely to experience a less-than-ideal connection with their home monitor. But continued education helps to instill trust and understanding between the parties involved.

Challenges in Continued Patient Education

Providing consistent messaging throughout and beyond the implant procedure into remote follow-up poses multiple challenges for clinic and hospital staff.

• Providers and manufacturer representatives are often not deeply involved in the day-to-day minutiae of helping patients with the use of remote monitoring equipment.
• Each manufacturer carries several models of transmitters and adapters which function differently with each implanted device platform.
• Frequent updates to monitoring equipment and to the proprietary vendor websites also serve to create an ever-changing environment. It is challenging for clinic staff to remain current on each device, from each vendor, with each update—and to clearly communicate necessary information to patients and their families in a timely manner.
• Device clinic staff are not able to focus solely on educating remote patients. Every day, many other pressing tasks involved in the work of a busy device clinic keep them busy. Patient education is only one of the many duties for clinic personnel.

PaceMate Enables the Priority of Education

Accurately educating patients on their specific equipment, according to each patient’s individual situation, can make all the difference between a compliant and a non-compliant patient. PaceMate’s dedicated team of Patient Communication Specialists are highly trained and knowledgeable—able to provide this patient-specific education on remote monitor function and purpose.

Our compassionate care model ensures that every patient is treated like family, and education is disseminated at each patient’s own level of understanding. At PaceMate, we believe that informed patients are empowered patients, and empowered patients are compliant patients. Find out how we can support your efforts to educate cardiac device patients.