FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Florida Hospital Launches
Life-Saving Protocol for Treating Acute Heart Attack
October 31, 2003 - Orlando, FL - Minutes can mean the difference between life and death during an acute heart attack, or ST-segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI). In fact, every second counts. That's why Florida Hospital is launching a new system-wide initiative in its seven emergency departments called Code STEMI.
"Code STEMI is a new alert system that immediately notifies our specially trained cardiac team when a patient is experiencing an acute heart attack," explains Danielle Johnson, RN, BSBM, administrative director of cardiovascular services at Florida Hospital.
Code STEMI brings Florida Hospital emergency department, Flight One helicopter, EMS ambulance, and catheterization lab teams together with interventional cardiologists in a well-rehearsed manner to achieve the best results for the patients.
"To our knowledge,
no other multi-hospital system in Central Florida has developed a rapid response
program like Code STEMI for treating acute heart attacks. By instituting this
program at all seven hospital locations, we are able to provide streamlined,
advanced cardiac care to the entire Metro Orlando area," said H.B. Karunaratne,
MD, medical director of cardiac research and the coronary care unit at Florida
Hospital.
When a patient arrives at any of Florida Hospital's seven locations with chest
pain, they will receive an EKG within minutes. If the ER physician determines
the patient is having an acute heart attack, a Code STEMI page alerts the cardiac
team. The patient is then rushed to the catheterization lab at Florida Hospital
Orlando where emergency life-saving treatments, like primary angioplasty, take
place. A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine
shows that even when a patient is transported from one campus to another, primary
angioplasty is still superior to thrombolytic therapy (drug treatment) when
treating acute heart attack.
"The Code STEMI program was instituted to decrease 'door-to-balloon' times while providing the best treatment options to patients rapidly," according to Kathy Grace, RN, MSA, assistant director of cardiology at Florida Hospital. Grace explains "door-to-balloon" indicates the amount of time that elapses between arrival at the hospital and the first inflation of the balloon for a primary angioplasty procedure. In some cases, angioplasty may be combined with thrombolytic therapy, and if necessary, emergency bypass surgery may be performed to help restore the heart muscle's supply of oxygenated blood.
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This release is located on the Internet
at: http://www.floridahospital.org/
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