San Diego County Considering Routing Heart Attack Victims to Specific Hospitals
According to The San Diego Union-Tribune, a new 911 system might be implemented in the San Diego County to drive severe heart-attack patients to specific hospitals with catheterization labs. Since 1983 trauma patients are already routed to six designated hospitals in the area, as studies have shown that these patients have much better survival rate if treated within an hour of being injured. In the case of heart attack victims, Medicare states their arteries should be unblocked within two hours.
Most ambulances in the county are now fitted with 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG/EKG) monitors to diagnose certain heart attack types such as ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarctions (STEMIs) also nicknamed “tombstones.” These should be handled within 90 minutes, but the Union-Tribune questions whether the county’s standards will be strict enough to reach that goal. Some smaller hospitals don’t perform many catheterization procedures but they might not want to lose the associated prestige and revenue. In a recent Circulation article, Dr. Alice Jacobs of Boston Medical Center noted that cardiac diagnosis and treatment are hard to let go because they typically account for about 40 percent of a hospital’s net revenue.
May 7, 2006 Related topics: Quality, Safety, Errors, Diagnostic, Emergency