Kat, a remote nurse case manager, was making her regular phone check-in with Laura, a woman with chronic disease who mentioned that she had been feeling lightheaded. She had experienced dizzy spells the previous night and throughout the day. 

“Of course I wasn’t comfortable with it,” Kat said.

Without the right health professionals, remote Chronic Care Management could easily slip into a clock-punching routine. When that happens, however, its value diminishes. What happened next to Kat and Laura shows just how putting the right nurse in the right position can lead to life-saving interventions. 

To protect their privacy, nurse and patient names have been changed, but the facts in this story are all true.

Laura tried to downplay her dizziness. She told Kat that she had lain down a few times and was starting to feel better, but that wasn’t enough for her Signallamp Health remote nurse. 

Kat was worried about her patient, who seemed reluctant to do anything about her dizzy spells. Kat opted to take the matter as far as she could in order to keep Laura on the right track toward wellness.

While still on the phone with Laura, Kat quickly sent her doctor a note describing the dizzy spells. She also helped Laura understand when and why she should seek emergency care.

As it turns out, Laura’s doctor also shared Kat’s concern and immediately recommended an emergency room visit.

Remote care nurses develop strong relationships with providers

At Signallamp, our network of remote nurses, stationed across the country, develop trusting and honest relationships with patients first, but they also develop ancillary relationships that are absolutely necessary in order to provide care for the whole patient.

For an effective Chronic Care Management plan to work, each nurse case manager has to know and trust their patients’ specialists and primary care doctors. 

That relationship starts at the top, when private practices and health systems engage with Signallamp for Chronic Care Management services and Remote Patient Monitoring. Our company integrates seamlessly with provider electronic health record systems, so Signallamp remote nurses are empowered to update patient histories instantly. 

So in addition to adding the invaluable touch point Signallamp nurses provide, as an extension of provider offices to keep patients accountable and on track, nurses also deliver critical patient data to providers that they otherwise may never see.

And just like in Laura’s case, an extra pair of eyes can catch warning signs the patient might never have acknowledged – or at least not until it’s too late.

A night in the hospital

An emergency room visit for Laura led to an overnight stay in the hospital and an echocardiogram. Laura needed a heart valve replacement.

“She’s called me her guardian angel for that day,” Kat said. “She said if I hadn’t called, she probably wouldn’t have done anything about it, and no telling what would have happened.”

Signallamp remote nurses don’t possess any industry secrets to get patients compliant with their medication or reveal troubling new symptom developments. The reality is, plenty of patients can be just as stubborn with a remote nurse as they are with their doctors in the exam room. 

Add to that, many simply don’t like to talk on the phone in the first place. 

What Signallamp remote nurses do have, however, is persistence. They know that wellness takes grit and determination, and that people don’t just become vulnerable because someone rang them up.

Relationships take time to develop and focus. The Signallamp Chronic Care Management model works because it gives remote nurses the tools and time they need to build trusting relationships with patients so that, when they truly need help, their nurse is waiting to guide them toward it. 

“Sometimes people don’t want to talk to you,” Kat said. “But sometimes, they’re really grateful that you called that day.”