Who Sets The Settings?

Can your EP adjust your settings on your PM? I thought the St.Jude tech. (in my case St.Jude) did the adjustments.
I have an appt. with my EP...and they said he could change the settings...or get the tech. if he was needed.
So which is it...can they both adjust the settings? Do they both have those round disk things that change them?

Thanks Holly

4 Comments

PM Settings

by SMITTY - 2008-07-28 11:07:51

Hello Holly,

I've had my pacemaker for 8 years and had many PM checkups and adjustments a number of times. Some checkups were done by the doctor. Some by the nurse/technicians and a couple of times I've had a manufacturer's rep. To the best of my knowledge every change was made on the doctor's instructions. There have been times that the person doing the checkup would say "I think I need to make a slight change in some setting and I'm going to check with Dr. so and so before I do that.

Like Jim said, anyone one with the knowledge and access to the computer can make a settings change, but I seriously doubt anyone other than the doctor would take it on themselves to make the change without authorization from the doctor.

I could be wrong on this and if I am I'm sure we will find out, but to me if I have a change in the settings on my PM it must be done by the doctor or at his direction. A change under any other circumstance would mean someone is practicing medicine without a license. The way I see it, changing the settings on my PM is the equidistant of prescribing medicine and I don't plan to ever accept a prescription from anyone but a doctor.

With all that said, I think you will find that changes in the settings are not made very often. Of course at the beginning, it may be necessary to make a change or two to get the optimum setting for you, but after that checkups are just to be sure the PM is continuing to perform as it should. I know I have gone for as much a 3 years with no changes being made in my settings.

The way I know this I always get a copy of the printout from a checkup and on my Medtronic (it may or may not be this way for all brand) there are two columns of figures. The heading on these columns are Initial and Final. Initial is the current setting and Final is the setting when they are finished. If there is a difference in the numbers for each item it will be marked with <. So seeing if changes were made is very easy.

Good luck,

Smitty

Hi Holly

by Bionic Beat - 2008-07-29 02:07:15

As far as I know, only a doctor can approve a change in settings but it can be done by either the tech or the doctor.

Most Cardiac nurses, techs and physicians know how to use the computer to change things but it is exactly like a prescription. ie the legally responsible person is the doc.

Hope they get you sorted soon.

Bionic Beat

Plus...

by dward - 2008-07-29 06:07:16

I may have missed it in reading al the good feedback you got, but I wanted to add - they keep pretty good records of any changes made. All changes should be entered in your medical file.

And to clarify, when Jim and Smitty refer to a computer or computer mouse - they are talking about SPECIFIC medical equipment - not just any ol' laptop will re-program your PM.

And another thing...

by Paula - 2008-07-30 04:07:54

With my original pacemaker, my cardiologist did everything...checked, monitored, and reprogrammed the PM. Unfortunately he retired. Now I see my new cardiologist once a year, and the pacemaker tech every 3-6 months. The tech makes minor adjustments from time to time and calls in the doc only if there's a problem. So, I think it depends on the doctor(s) you see and varies from practice to practice.

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