Flexible Partnership and Optimized Patient Care: The CV Remote Solutions Experience

© 2023 HMP Global. All Rights Reserved.

Any views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and/or participants and do not necessarily reflect the views, policy, or position of EP Lab Digest or HMP Global, their employees, and affiliates. 

EP LAB DIGEST. 2023;23(9):15-17.

In this feature interview, EP Lab Digest talks with Doranda Andrews, Practice Administrator, Gustavo Morales, MD, and Shelly Chancey, BSN, RN, CCDS, Device Service Manager, from the Alabama Cardiovascular Group in Birmingham, Alabama, and Jane Wisker, RN, from North Memorial Health in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, about how partnering with CV Remote Solutions helped provide their device clinic with high-quality, transitional staff support and optimized workflows while maintaining excellent patient care.

Interview with Doranda Andrews, Practice Administrator:

From an administrative perspective, what was the process like to initiate the partnership with CV Remote Solutions?

The contract process with CV Remote Solutions was very efficient. The communication from their contract and administration personnel was swift and professional.

How has CV Remote Solutions impacted the day-to-day operations of your clinic?

They support our device clinic staff during times of rapid company growth and device staff shortages. The support they provide has enabled us to onboard close to 1000 additional device patients over the last year and a half, while concurrently trying to obtain and train additional device staff personnel.

How has the flexibility of CV Remote Solutions’ services benefited your clinic from a staffing and financial perspective?

The flexibility that CV Remote Solutions offers has benefited our group in that we are able refocus our device staff and receive additional support as needed during times of staffing shortages. The financial benefit for our service is the ability to scale back the use of CV Remote Solutions’ services but have them charge per read, as well as utilize their assistance as needed, allowing us the flexibility to decide.

Can you describe how CV Remote Solutions has adapted to your software and system requirements?

CV Remote Solutions uses our existing device support platform and electronic medical record, as well as our existing remote read workflows.

How does CV Remote Solutions’ support enable you to maintain high-quality care during periods of staffing fluctuations?

It provides experienced, high-quality remote interpretation support during times of staffing shortages.

How has CV Remote Solutions worked with your team to understand and meet your specific needs?

We have partnered with CV Remote Solutions for several years, and they are always willing to provide support when needed in an efficient and timely manner.

Can you describe a situation where CV Remote Solutions’ services significantly contributed to the clinic’s efficiency?

Our company has undergone significant growth over the past 2 years. CV Remote Solutions has assisted our device service by providing swift additional remote interrogation support when needed. This assistance has enabled our device service to expand during a time of device staffing shortage.

How has the absence of proprietary software requirements influenced your experience with CV Remote Solutions?

Our existing software is suitable and cost effective for our service. It is beneficial that no additional proprietary software is required and we are able to work within our current software platform.

What has been the impact of CV Remote Solutions’ partnership on patient satisfaction?

We have maintained consistent quality of patient care while maintaining the Alabama Cardiovascular Group’s standards of device care.

Would you recommend CV Remote Solutions to other clinics? If so, why?

Yes. The flexibility to have additional remote monitoring support when needed is beneficial for our patients and staff.

Interview with Gustavo Morales, MD, and Shelly Chancey, BSN, RN, CCDS, Device Service Manager:

Can you share an instance when CV Remote Solutions’ staffing support was particularly valuable for your clinic?

Alabama Cardiovascular Group (ACG) is a large electrophysiology (EP)/cardiology practice with >40 providers at multiple locations in central Alabama as well as one location in Mississippi. Our device service was accredited last year by the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission, and we strive to maintain the highest quality device care and standards. As we have grown significantly over the past 2 years, including adding new providers and clinic locations, the patient load of our device service has increased exponentially. CV Remote Solutions has allowed us to continue the same quality of patient service and standards of care during this growth. The remote monitoring support that CV Remote Solutions has been able to provide has been extremely valuable and has enabled ACG to add more patients to our device service without having additional in-house staff. Training new device nurses and staff is a lengthy process. The experienced device nurses and staff employed by CV Remote Solutions enables ACG to support an increased patient load while onboarding and training necessary additional in-house device staff.

How does CV Remote Solutions’ ability to scale services according to your needs contribute to the smooth operation of your clinic?

We have worked with CV Remote Solutions for several years now. Our ongoing partnership has allowed our device service the flexibility to have additional, reliable, experienced remote monitoring support in times of need as well as full resumption of remote monitoring of our device patients when additional support is not necessary.

How has CV Remote Solutions enhanced patient care at Alabama Cardiovascular Group?

We are very proud of our team and the care that we deliver to patients. CV Remote Solutions has enabled us to maintain the highest quality and standards of device management.

Can you describe how the integration of CV Remote Solutions’ team with your own has influenced the clinic’s workflow?

Most in-clinic device support is provided by ACG device nurses. Industry in-clinic support is limited to when necessary, and there is no use of industry in ACG remote monitoring. The additional remote monitoring support provided by CV Remote Solutions enables the ACG device nurses to continue to provide in-house support to all our device patients. Therefore, CV Remote Solutions provides services when needed without changing our team’s workflow, ensuring consistency of care to patients when staff members are on vacation or leave, or there is a position to fill.

How has the flexibility of CV Remote Solutions benefited your patients and staff during times of increased demand or staffing shortage, and acted as a “safety net” for your clinic?

It has provided the flexibility to quickly add reliable and experienced remote monitoring support in times of need.

Can you provide an example of how CV Remote Solutions has adapted to your established workflows?

Per our request, the nurses at CV Remote Solutions provide patient communication through our electronic medical record. This maintains consistent patient communication with the ACG device nurses and providers.

What differentiates CV Remote Solutions from other remote cardiac monitoring services you’ve considered or used?

We have not used other remote monitoring services.

Would you recommend CV Remote Solutions to other clinics? Why or why not?

Absolutely. The quality of technical remote interpretation provided by the nurses at CV Remote Solutions is excellent. The communication with CV Remote Solutions staff and our device staff has been smooth and efficient.

Interview with Jane Wisker, RN:

Can you describe the staffing challenges that North Memorial faced before partnering with CV Remote Solutions?

At a baseline level, it felt like we were treading water trying to keep up with the increased workload of data coming in from remote patient monitoring. Staff leave was also setting us back—we had 2 upcoming maternity leaves and our administrative support staff was also going on medical leave. We knew it would be difficult to manage the workload during that time.

What was your initial impression of CV Remote Solutions and their team?

CV Remote Solutions was approachable and open about the ways in which they could help us. They always reinforced that they were here to provide temporary help for the time that was needed, and that their intention was not to take over our work. They wanted to come in and help us while it was necessary, and leave once we were back up and running.

How did CV Remote Solutions support North Memorial during this transition period?

They took over all our remote transmissions for pacemakers and defibrillators. They also helped with some of the scheduling and other administrative challenges.

Can you share specific ways that CV Remote Solutions optimized your workflows?

It was great partnering with CV Remote Solutions. We had some workflow goals that we were wanting to achieve, but were having difficulty making those changes while things were so busy. CV Remote Solutions was great with the transition of handing over that work to them. They helped us change the workflow to our goal state.

We were also interested in making changes in the way we were using Paceart, including tasks lists, and in our patient correspondence. By partnering with CV Remote Solutions, we were able to improve those efficiencies in our clinic. CV Remote Solutions provided their expertise in creating new workflows and were generous with their time.

How did the partnership affect patient care? Can you share any patient feedback or outcomes?

At North Memorial, we take pride in the quality of care that we provide. We were a little apprehensive at first about passing that off, but we quickly found that CV Remote Solutions helped to provide that same level of quality care. At the time, we were overwhelmed and having difficulty keeping up with the workload. Once CV Remote Solutions joined the team and we were able to once again keep up with management of daily transmissions, we all felt better knowing that our patients were receiving excellent care.

As a nurse, how did you find the collaboration with CV Remote Solutions?

It was great! Remote monitoring has really grown and allowed us to take care of patients on almost a continuous basis. We prefer to have the ability to react to any little change that patients are experiencing, but with that comes an incredible amount of data to get through. Being able to rely on CV Remote Solutions to sort through data made us feel good about the type of care that our patients were receiving.

What were the key factors that contributed to the success of this partnership?

CV Remote Solutions offered open communication and they were receptive to our feedback. We trusted them with helping us to take care of our patients. CV Remote Solutions also focuses on providing high-quality care, which made us feel secure when choosing them. In addition, I appreciated their easygoing attitude. It felt like CV Remote Solutions knew what our intentions were and what we wanted, and that they truly wanted to help.

How did the CV Remote Solutions team integrate with your existing team and processes?

Before setting up the transition, we had a few calls with CV Remote Solutions to talk through the workflow. We also had weekly meetings in the beginning to make sure everything was running smoothly. We were also able to email any questions. They were quickly able to understand our workflow and take it over.

Would you recommend CV Remote Solutions to other clinics facing similar challenges? Why?

I would recommend CV Remote Solutions. They were quickly able to help us with the high level of quality that we were looking for. While there was some initial apprehension within our clinic about this transition, that quickly disappeared when we saw everything that CV Remote Solutions was doing to provide the best quality care. It is clear that the use of remote patient monitoring is growing, and health care in general is dealing with staffing issues. Figuring out how to manage that incoming data is a challenge for almost every device clinic. It is great to know there are companies like CV Remote Solutions that provide high-quality intentional care.

Looking back, what has been the most significant impact of this partnership?

It is easy for device clinics to fall behind, leaving them vulnerable and ultimately affecting the staff, providers, and most importantly, patient care. It is a problem that is difficult to address because it requires people and staff. It takes about a year to train people, so it is a difficult role to staff, and the technology is changing at a rapid rate, so we need to figure out ways to keep up. Having CV Remote Solutions can be a great safety net for clinics. It is reassuring to know that there is help for providing that excellent patient care. 

Disclosure: The participants have completed and returned the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. They report no conflicts of interest regarding the content herein. Outside the published work, Dr Morales reports consulting fees from Abbott and Biosense Webster.

This article was published with support from CV Remote Solutions.