Prairie Heart leads nation in fast treatment of heart attacks

Contact: Brian Reardon (217) 544-6464, ext. 44306

SPRINGFIELD -- Physicians from Prairie Cardiovascular, St. John’s Emergency Department and Prairie Heart Institute’s Cath Lab team have made a commitment to rapid treatment of heart attack patients by working together to reduce the “door-to-balloon” time – a measure of how fast a heart attack is treated.

If you’re having a heart attack, every second counts in the race to save heart muscle… and your life. That’s why the physicians from Prairie Cardiovascular, St. John’s Emergency Department and Prairie Heart Institute’s Cath Lab team have made a commitment to rapid treatment of heart attack patients by working together to reduce the “door-to-balloon” time – a measure of how fast a heart attack is treated.

Patients who come to St. John’s Emergency Department receive life-saving treatment to open blocked arteries within a median time of 65 minutes – far exceeding the 90-minute goal set by the American College of Cardiologists and the American Heart Association. Recent research suggests that only 35 percent of hospitals nationwide meet the 90-minute timeframe. The 65-minute mark at St. John’s places the Hospital in the top 3 percent in the country.

Frank Mikell, MD, Prairie Cardiovascular Consultants, says the cardiology group began looking at ways to reduce door-to-balloon time more than five years ago – long before most hospitals began addressing the issue. “We recognized that this was an important quality measure,” he explains. “It is a well-known, published fact that reducing the door-to-balloon time below 90 minutes improves survival rates.”

A committee of cardiologists, St. John’s Emergency Department Medical Director Linda Nordeman and other St. John’s leaders worked to create the processes and methods needed to coordinate the complex transfer of heart attack patients from the emergency room to the cath lab in the most efficient and timely manner. One of the key factors is performing an EKG test immediately on patients who come to the emergency room complaining of any cardiac-related symptoms.

If you or a loved one is experiencing chest pain or other signs of a heart attack, call 911 and ask to be taken to St. John’s emergency room. It may be a matter of life or death.