Myocardial Infarction
SLR is a member of the American College of Cardiology’s Door to Balloon Alliance for Quality. This Alliance was formed to save time and save lives by reducing the door-to-balloon times in U.S. hospitals performing primary PCI.( balloon angioplasty). A growing list of organizations, including the American Heart Association (AHA) and the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, are partners in this effort.
National guidelines developed by the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA) state that hospitals treating STEMI patients with emergency PCI should reliably achieve a door-to-balloon time of 90 minutes or less. However, accomplishing this level of performance is an organizational challenge.
D2B: An Alliance for Quality advocates the adoption of six key, evidenced-based strategies for reducing door-to-balloon times. The six core strategies are:
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ED physician activates the cath lab;
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One call activates the cath lab;
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Cath lab team ready in 20 – 30 minutes;
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Prompt data feedback;
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Senior management commitment;
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Team-based approach.
In order to meet this challenge SLR has implemented the all of these recommended strategies and achieved the national goal of door to balloon time of less than 90 minutes in 75% of patients.
Patients presenting to the SLR EDs with a chief complaint of chest pain are immediately brought to the treatment area where they have an electrocardiogram done and interpreted by a physician within 10 minutes. If an STEMI (a heart attack) is identified the MI (heart attack) team is activated. A cardiology fellow immediately comes to the ED while an attending physician and nurse report to the Cardiac Cauterization lab. As soon as the lab is open the patient is transported to the lab so the procedure can begin to open the occluded coronary artery. This team approach assures the optimal outcome for our patients.
