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| Contact: Christine Hill (612) 873-5719 |
04/20/09 |
Highest success rates reported at Minnesota hospitals
Hennepin County Medical Center is one of three Minnesota hospitals to contribute data for a national study about the time it takes to open a blocked artery in acute heart attack patients. Door-to-balloon time is the time it takes to open a patient’s blocked artery after he or she presents to the hospital with acute heart attack. Shorter door-to-balloon time is associated with less damage to the heart. The American College of Cardiology (ACC)’s goal is to have 75% of acute heart attack patients treated with a door-to-balloon time of less than 90 minutes. The study results published in this week’s Journal of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) conclude that 86% of heart attack patients had door-to-balloon times of less than 90 minutes, surpassing the benchmark set by the ACC. At the three participating hospitals in the Minneapolis St. Paul area (Hennepin County Medical Center, Abbott Northwestern Hospital, and United Hospital), 97 % of heart attack patients had door-to-balloon times of less than 90 minutes – surpassing all other regions represented in the study – and the ACC’s national goal.
“We already knew that our door-to-balloon times were better than the national averages, but it’s still exciting to see these results,” explains interventional cardiologist Fouad Bachour, MD, who leads the interventional program at Hennepin and was responsible for performing many of the cardiac catheterization procedures on the study participants, “because it means more Minnesotans are surviving heart attacks.”
Every year an estimated 500,000 Americans experience heart attacks which occur when an artery is completely blocked and blood flow to cardiac muscle is restricted. There's no dispute within the medical community that the quicker the patient receives treatment, the better chance for survival. One of the ways Hennepin County Medical Center has reduced the time it takes to get a patient with an acute heart attack to the cath lab for emergency angioplasty was to give paramedics the authority to call ahead and alert the cath lab staff directly instead of receiving prior authorization.
Hennepin paramedics began activating the cardiac cath lab from the field and rigs in 2005, which significantly reduced door-to-balloon times. That’s when they began carrying an electrocardiogram, or EKG, which is used to measure the heart's electrical activity to identify heart attack patients. Since this protocol has been in place, door-to-balloon times as low as 26 minutes have been reported.
“There’s no time to lose when it comes to treating a heart attack. Time is muscle,” says Dr. Bachour. “That’s why it’s so important to call 911 right away if you suspect you or someone you know is having a heart attack.”
For more information about the study results, go to http://www.acc.org/media/media.htm
Hennepin County Medical Center has a long tradition of delivering patient-centered, high-quality cardiovascular care. Celebrating its 20th year as a Level 1 Trauma Center, HCMC is the centerpiece of Hennepin County’s clinical health services, which include the physician group practice Hennepin Faculty Associates and a network of community clinics. The comprehensive academic medical center and 446-bed public teaching hospital is repeatedly recognized by U.S. News & World Report in its annual “America’s Best Hospitals” report.
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