Charting a Clinical Care Management Journey; A Conversation with Hope Klein, LPN, Remote Patient Manager Nurse

In our latest blog, we connect with Hope Klein, LPN, Remote Patient Manager Nurse, to learn more about her clinical journey, her experience working in collaboration with Marie Peppers on the Chronic Care Manager Course and ultimately, her road to CareSimple.

Did you always have aspirations to be a nurse? How did you happen to end up in the field?

As a young child, I did not start off with clinical aspirations but rather always thought I would end up in a faith-based or education job having grown up the daughter of a pastor who ran a Christian school. In fact I started my career as a teacher but then my father was hurt in a tragic accident and was hospitalized far from our family home for an extended period of time. I’ll never forget spending Christmas with him in his room, when suddenly a physician came down the halls playing the violin traveling from patient to patient. It was so simple but meant so much to me and my family spreading light during a time of darkness. Then and there I decided to pursue a career in nursing so I too could give back.

Tell us a little bit about your career path; what was that journey like and how did you become a Chronic Care Manager Nurse?

My nursing path definitely didn’t follow a straight line. I began my career as a certified nursing assistant (CNA), where I stayed for five years and was predominantly based in home health. Unfortunately, the role involved more paperwork and medical records management than the patient interactions I desired. What followed was a return to the classroom where I then earned my licensed practical nursing (LPN) degree and a position managing surgeries for orthopedic doctors which afforded me a lot more opportunities to engage with patients but was still limited in utilizing my clinical skills. This prompted a return to long term health care where I worked my way up to managing between 40-50 people at any given time.

It wasn’t until after the birth of my son over three years ago that my passion for remote chronic care management really sparked. I desired a job that was flexible, allowed me to work from home and be closer to my kids (but believe me, a full-time babysitter was still a necessity!) Then, I met Marie Peppers.

How would you describe your relationship with Marie?

When I was first introduced to Marie, I was blown away as there truly wasn’t anything else like the Chronic Care Manager course available to the nursing community. The breadth and depth of her curriculum was so extensive and so relevant to the work that we were doing in our jobs. But the thing that struck me the most was her passion, not only for providing her nurses with the best training possible, but also her personal dedication to helping them find the best clinical positions upon course completion. Finding a chronic care management position can be HIGHLY competitive, and that’s what so great about Marie’s course, hiring managers know that her graduates are truly the best when it comes to their education and that they will come to the role prepared, requiring minimal onboarding and training. It really cuts through the noise of a lot of resumes. When it came time for me to take on a more active role in her program as an educator, it was an exciting moment for me that I’m very proud of.

And what about her remote patient monitoring (RPM) training more specifically particularly excited you?

When I started working with Marie, her RPM training was still in its infancy. It wasn’t really until the COVID-19 pandemic that she started incorporating the technology into her curriculum. She initially kicked off the initiative working with another technology provider but soon realized that CareSimple was a better fit for her nurses from a training perspective, based on both the comprehensiveness and simplicity of their RPM offering.

Based on your experience, what about CareSimple really helps them stand out in the RPM marketplace?

What really set CareSimple apart from other technology providers is how they approach customer service. If there was a problem, CareSimple was immediately available to listen to the whole issue and work to find a solution, regardless of who was responsible. It was this approach to collaboration that I think really differentiates the company from other RPM players out there today.

And now you are the one working in collaboration with CareSimple.

Yes, I recently joined the company as a Remote Patient Manager Nurse. While we at CareSimple believe that RPM is an important part of the patient-physician relationship and that it should not be outsourced to third-party vendors, we know that RPM is a new concept for most providers and that some help to get started is needed. My role is therefore to assist our customers to recruit and onboard patients – which is reimbursed by Medicare with CPT code 99453 – train their clinical staff and provide some guidance and support. I also enjoy collaborating with the CareSimple management team as they truly value my unique viewpoints, and especially when it comes to reinforcing the company’s clinical background and understanding of the different workflows of virtual nurses and care managers.

In general, what about RPM excites you the most?

I truly believe that RPM has almost limitless potential and to date, we are just scratching the surface.  But if I were to pinpoint one tangible thing that I think really speaks to the value of the offering, it would be the ability to be more proactive about a patient’s health. A lot of the time we are dealing with patient issues after the fact, and they end up having to go to the ER. With RPM, we are able to catch things before they escalate and turn into larger issues. We can have the necessary conversations with patients in order to determine what’s happening versus letting things go and becoming an emergency.