Treatment Protocol Decreases Wait Time
Cardiologists at St. Francis Heart Center in Indianapolis revised the facility’s protocol to treat patients with heart attacks who require emergency angioplasty. This approach reduced the amount of time before patients underwent definitive treatment. The group’s effort was reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
The effort was employed to reduce “door-to-balloon” time recommendations from The American Heart Association, which indicate that patients should receive treatment in the cath lab within 90 minutes of being seen.
The program revised two components of their standard protocol to treat patients with ST-segment elevation heart attacks. The first step was immediate notification of cardiologists when such a patient was seen in the emergency room, “activating” the cath lab team to be ready.
The second modification was creation of a team to respond, at the same time the cath lab is activated, to the patient in the emergency room. The team, consisting of three nurses, then immediately transports the patients to the cath lab for treatment.
Implementation of the program reduced door-to-balloon time over thirty percent and under the recommended 90 minute mark. The team also noted a decrease in costs associated with shorter time of hospitalization.
Related story: Decreasing Time to Cardiac Catheterization
June 13, 2007 Related topics: Quality, Safety, Errors, Emergency, Cardiology