Drive-through service for patients with pacemakers

MONCTON, NB – Vitalité Health Network has implemented a drive-through service for some of its patients with cardiac pacemakers. Located in the St. Pat’s Family Centre’s parking lot, this remote clinic is intended to eliminate the backlog that has been growing since the COVID-19 pandemic started.

“We have accumulated a backlog of approximately 400 patients, and that number certainly wasn’t going to decrease amid the pandemic. Therefore, we came up with the idea of using the CareLink Express Mobile technology, which allows for cardiac monitoring of the patient while maintaining physical distancing measures,” said Dr. Luc Cormier, cardiologist at the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre.

“Essentially, the patient drives up to the parking lot and is handed a Bluetooth device by one of our technicians. The patient then places the device above the pacemaker and hands it back to the technician. A few minutes later, the information is saved, and the patient can either go back home or see a cardiologist, depending on the information received, explained Dr. Cormier.

“For the moment, this service is only available for patients with a Medtronic pacemaker, which represents approximately 80% of our patients,” he added.

Still according to Dr. Cormier, the initiative should take place over a period of under two weeks. “We have the physical capacity to see 48 patients per day. After ten days, we should have completed all our medical follow-ups and eliminated our current backlog,” he stated.

While this is a temporary project, Dr. Cormier said the idea of a permanent set-up will be considered if everything goes smoothly.