By Heather Ann White
Corpus Christi Caller-Times (Texas)
Copyright 2006 Caller-Times Publishing Company
All Rights Reserved
When it comes to a heart attack, time isn’t money - it’s muscle.
The Christus Spohn Health System and the city of Corpus Christi are working together to decrease the time it takes to treat a heart attack starting in the field, said Karen Long, executive director of the Heart Institute at Christus Spohn.
Spohn and the city’s emergency medical services have implemented a cardio alert program that will start in January. The program will place a 12-lead monitor defibrillator in each of the city’s eight ambulances. When someone has a heart attack, the machine sends the patient’s information to the emergency room or directly to a doctor before the patient arrives at the emergency room.
A 12-lead monitor defibrillator is a machine that monitors multiple cardiac rhythms and a person’s vital signs. It also acts as a defibrillator - a device that determines a person’s heart rhythm and administers the appropriate electric shock.
If patients need to visit the cardio catheterization lab - where the staff treats and operates on those suffering from heart attacks - doctors and nurses already will be prepared, Long said. The information can be sent to any Corpus Christi hospital emergency room.
“Time is muscle, basically. The sooner we can get the patient to the cath lab, the more heart muscle we save. We start the clock as soon as we get the patient in. We’re hoping to take 20 minutes off the current treatment time by making the determination in the field instead of the emergency department.”
The program has been in the planning stages for a year, Long said, but hospital administrators started talking with the city about six months ago. Last week, Spohn Shoreline volunteers donated six 12-lead monitor defibrillators to the city, which cost about $100,000. The volunteers raised the money through fundraisers, she said, and sales in the gift shop.
“This is the first time the volunteers have donated outside the hospital,” she said. “It’s going to be available to all of the community. This is a great opportunity for the community, and we’re excited.”
Mickie Flores, Corpus Christi Fire Department battalion chief, said the new equipment is better than the city’s current machines. Flores said the new machines give medics different views of the heart and let them know where exactly the problem is.
They are equipped with pulse oximeters, which attach to the patient’s finger and take the patient’s pulse and oxygen level. They also come with blood pressure cuffs.
“That’s the coolest part,” she said. “It takes it every five or 10 minutes, and you can set it automatically. It’s almost impossible to take blood pressure in the back of an ambulance but with this, you can slap it on and it will read it and store the reading.”
After the machine takes a patient’s information, it is sent from the ambulance to the emergency room via a wireless connection, Flores said.
The time saved will be priceless, she said. Other cities and hospitals that have similar programs have reduced treatment time by 42 to 44 minutes, according to studies Flores has seen.
The fire department and emergency medical services are training on the machines. Training takes about four hours.
“Basically they’re just learning the bells and whistles,” she said. “They are already familiar with the monitor. They’re just learning how to use the new functions.” The defibrillators should be placed in the ambulances in late January or in February, Flores said. Eight machines will be placed on ambulances, three will be used for training and one will be saved just in case, Flores said.
“These things are awesome,” she said. “It’s really going to make a difference.”