Employee spotlight: Why NP Melanie Coletta thinks Cadence is changing the face of healthcare for patients in rural areas
At Cadence, we believe that a better quality of life begins with better care. No matter what role at the company, our team is on a mission to give everyone consistent, proactive healthcare every day. In our Employee Perspectives series, you will hear how different Cadence team members are meeting the company's mission and why they are passionate about their work.
This week, Nurse Practitioner Melanie Coletta discusses her work on the Care Delivery team. If you’re interested in learning more about Cadence and current job opportunities, check out our careers page to learn more.
1) Tell us a little bit about what you do here at Cadence. What are your core responsibilities?
As a nurse practitioner, I partner with primary care providers and cardiologists in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to achieve clinical goals for their patients, based on individual patient needs and the current guideline recommendations for management. Strategies for how I do this include a review of patients’ daily vital signs and blood sugars and phone assessments with patients, focusing on current symptoms, behavioral modifications, coaching, and medication titration to obtain desired outcomes.
2) What gets you most excited about your job at Cadence and about the company at large?
What excites me most about my work at Cadence is that I get to see how the interventions I implement directly improve my patients' overall health. This transformation is evident upon review of the objective data such as daily blood pressure, weight, and blood glucose trends, which get better for my patients over time. It is also apparent in the subjective feedback I receive during my phone visits with patients, where they tell me how good they're feeling and how thankful they are for the service Cadence is providing to help them improve their health.
3) Can you talk about why you are passionate about extending access to care for people in rural and harder-to-access areas such as the Upper Peninsula of Michigan? Why is this important to you?
As a Michigander born and raised, I care about the people of Michigan very much. The Upper Peninsula is very rural and to that end, access to healthcare tends to be very limited. Primary care providers are often stretched thin, and access to specialty care such as that of a cardiologist is even more difficult. For that reason, even though providers are working their hardest, they simply cannot provide timely care to all patients who are in need. Additionally, clinics tend to be few and far between, so patients frequently choose to stay at home rather than travel several miles, sometimes in very icy or snowy conditions, to get to a clinic.
My role at Cadence helps to bridge the gap for these patients by providing them with access to a Board-Certified Nurse Practitioner at home. I can manage their hypertension, type two diabetes, and heart failure by reviewing their daily readings, conducting assessments over the phone, and making medication titrations as appropriate. I am also able to escalate those patients of concern that need to be seen by a doctor right away, whether it be in the clinic, or more urgently in a hospital setting. In this way, I am being an advocate for the patients, as well as the doctors who are entrusting their patients to me.
With Cadence, access to quality care has becomes more attainable and real for these folks. We are working alongside providers to offer a second set of eyes and enable them to provide care to a larger population of patients than they would be able to see in person otherwise.
4) For anyone who's considering joining Cadence, in particular those in clinical roles, what would you tell them based on your experience?
Cadence is changing the face of healthcare and how we manage chronic conditions. We are taking a proactive, rather than reactive approach to medicine, truly making a difference in the lives of those patients who may otherwise fall off the grid.
As a clinician who has spent the majority of my career on the inpatient hospital side of healthcare, I've seen the outcome of what happens to patients when these disease states go unchecked. As a clinician at Cadence, I can address clinical issues before they get out of hand, thereby helping patients reach their best health potential, with the goal of keeping them feeling well and out of the hospital.
I consider this an honor and privilege, and I feel blessed to be a part of the Cadence team.
