Ambulatory cardiac monitoring (ACM)—including Holter, event, and mobile cardiac telemetry monitors—is commonly used by cardiologists to diagnose critical arrhythmias remotely. For high-volume health systems like CaroMont Heart and Vascular, traditional ACM workflows often become operational “black holes.”
Managing multiple vendor portals, physical paper logbooks, and faxed alert chains creates severe administrative friction. To eliminate bottlenecks and establish a sustainable care model, CaroMonttransitioned from a fragmented, manual process to an in-house, provider-managed program powered by the Murj® Ambulatory Cardiac Monitoring Solution.
The impact was tangible: lost or cancelled studies were dramatically reduced, required staff was cut in half, and practitioner time spent on a clumsy online system was redirected toward high-need patient care.
A newly published paper details the clinical, operational, and financial impact of this workflow transformation.
Efficiencies
Adopting the new platform resulted in a drastic compression of the monitoring workflow. The implementation transformed a legacy 53-step manual workflow into a streamlined, heavily automated process via a digital platform that was integrated with CaroMont’s EHR system.
- Accelerated End-of-Study Tasks: Average time from end-of-study to billing submission dropped and stabilized at 7 days.
- Lean Staffing Optimization: Administrative burden was reduced by more than half, compressing staffing needs from 4 FTEs down to 2 dedicated staff members focused on direct patient education and triage.
- Physician Efficiency Gains: Navigating study review documentation requirements was reduced from upwards of 20 clicks in the EHR to just 3 or 4 clicks per study within a single interface, redirecting physician attention to patient care.
- Automated Billing: Eliminating manual charge entries led to predictable monthly revenue capture with real-time analytics dashboards tracking signed vs unbilled studies across all ambulatory clinic sites.
Quality of Care
- 100% Study Review Compliance: Centralizing diverse ACM pathways into an integrated digital queue eliminating lost or unread diagnostic studies.
- Significant Reduction in Lost Studies: Cancellations of studies delivered in-office study dropped by 50%, home-dispatched study cancellations fell by 31%, and incomplete studies were cut in half (50% reduction).
- Attention to Patient Care: Alleviating administrative burden of the legacy system enabled the vast majority of staff time to be spent interfacing with the patient, while practitioners could more easily focus on patients needing their attention.
- Clear Information for Review: The manual paper processes and disjointed event dating of the legacy system complicated the interpretation of events under review. Automatic alignment and visibility of event history and medications ensured correct interpretation of new events under review without time-consuming chart reviews.
Download the full case study
The experience at CaroMont underscores that a manual review and documentation practice dependent on siloed vendor websites can be effectively replaced with an automated digital workflow solution. By bringing ACM management into a single, EHR-integrated software platform, healthcare organizations can eliminate administrative burnout, ensure complete CPT revenue capture, and deliver timely, high-quality virtual cardiac care.
Click here to read the full case study by Kelly Bergen, et. al.: Transforming Ambulatory Cardiac Monitoring: From Operational Black Hole to Shining Star By Kelly Bergen, MSN, ACNP, FHRS, CCDS; Becca Clough, CMA-AAMA; Sallie Gustafson, BSN, CCDS; Timothy M. Stivland, MBA, BSME; and Omer L. Shedd, MD, FACC, FHRS
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