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Contact: Sarah Bello

Meet Lauren Knutsen, registered nurse in the CMH-OHSU Health Cardiology Clinic. Knutsen’s role at CMH is to interrogate pacemakers, internal defibrillators or implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) and loop reporters. "Interrogating" devices means to "look into" them to ensure they're functioning properly.

“Nurses do a full array of things, including international normalized ratio (INR) checks and teaching, nurse visits for hypertension, A-fib, heart failure and whatever our patients need,” Knutsen says. “We do a full array of testing, as well, including stress echoes, nuclear medicine tests, testing on the treadmill and exercise stress testing on the treadmill. In between all those appointments, we receive a lot of triage phone calls and just try to support our staff and our team.”

Knutsen has been with CMH for over six years and has enjoyed working with and learning about the many devices used in the clinic. The main parts of her day consist of interrogating patients’ devices and routine checks.

“I've been at the Cardiology Clinic for a while, so I've been able to see it evolve to what it is now, and one of the things I've learned and felt appreciative for is that I've been able to learn about devices and electrophysiology. That is what I found I love and enjoy,” Knutsen says. “I mainly have device appointments where I interrogate patients’ devices, and a lot of those appointments are scheduled with the providers. I do a lot of follow-up device checks after OHSU Electrophysiology sees them, as well, so patients don't have to go back and forth to Portland.”

Knutsen is glad to see the Cardiology program expanding with more ability to do implant device appointments right in the office. She has learned a lot about general cardiac health, especially in working with Dr. Khidir Dalouk, an OHSU cardiologist who has a lot of experience with devices.

“We're very lucky to have Dr. Dalouk here a couple of times a month. He started implanting devices, and I've been able to be exposed more and learn a lot about them,” Knutsen says. “Having the ability to work with some awesome providers, team members and their experience with electrophysiology and devices is amazing. They are all knowledgeable and very willing to help, and I learn from them daily.

“We have a great leadership team. Crystal Bridgeman is my manager and Kristen Whisnant is my supervisor. They're very supportive and always want me to learn and make sure I can watch a device implant in the OR. They want to keep the Cardiology Clinic growing and evolving to be the best it can be.”

Knutsen looks forward to the future continued growth of the Cardiology Clinic and also the future hospital expansion. She hopes to see more cardiac device implantation on the coast, making it easier and more accessible for patients to receive them.

“I know that's what we're working toward, and we're doing that more often. Making those procedures more accessible for patients is a huge thing, and luckily, we have OHSU's influence. I even had the opportunity to spend a day with the electrophysiologist at OHSU,” Knutsen says. “We're expanding on our device side, and there is so much that we offer with our great team and knowledgeable providers. That’s the biggest thing — being able to expand and provide more for a rural community."