Taking Control of Her Care - An HSNT Patient Story
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The past year has shown us that many things that are traditionally done in-person can be done remotely via technology, including a visit to your healthcare provider. But what if you could start managing a specific health problem with your provider through technology? That’s what Susan Martin is doing by participating in the Remote Monitoring program at Health Services of North Texas.
“I’m using the remote monitoring for my blood pressure,” Susan says. “I’ve had problems with that since my late 20s. It was controlled, but I got off of [one medicine] that I had problems with, and then for a while I didn’t have insurance, so I was bouncing back and forth between doctors. It started slowly building up again, and so Kerry’s been working on that, and she suggested we try the remote program.”
Susan has been seeing Kerry Gamble, NP at HSNT’s health center at Serve Denton since 2019, after seeing Tabitha Muriuki, FNP at HSNT’s Mesa Drive location, but she’s had no problems with switching providers.
“What I like about Kerry, she’ll tell me ‘We can try this and see if it works and if it doesn’t, we’ll try something else.’ It’s not like hitting a brick wall, we just keep going. So that makes me feel comfortable to be honest and tell her that, because I know she has an alternative.”
The Remote Monitoring program that Susan is a part of is a trial program that she and a few other patients are participating in to help them managing either diabetes or blood pressure. Patients are given a monitoring device that they can take home with them and record their test results themselves. Once they do that, they can upload that information to HSNT’s secure patient portal for their HSNT provider to see.
“When I take my reading at home, it’s not as bad as when I’m in the health center. Even though I’m not nervous, I don’t know if it’s subconscious, but it gets higher. That’s when Kerry asked if I wanted to try the program,” Susan says. “She showed me how everything worked, and I just have to do it twice a day. Honestly, it helps me. It helps me figure out what my blood pressure should be and where it is right then.”
Not only does Susan feel more in control of her blood pressure tracking, but it also saves her a lot of time by reducing her health center visits from twice a month to every two or three months.
“I’m not that close to where [Kerry] is and I have to depend on family members to drive me there. I tend to be a big worrier, so now it’s one less thing I worry about. I have all my readings I can look back on, it’s being done on the proper machine, and Kerry can see it.”
Susan’s experience with HSNT has left her feeling empowered and equipped to better manage her health herself, while still having a team of compassionate providers there to guide her.
“HSNT is such a great place” Susan says. “Even though [I’m on the sliding scale] I’m treated as if I had full insurance, they don’t hold back on anything. I’m not a number on the system – I’m a person.”
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