When someone is having a heart attack, minutes count. The sooner a patient is treated in a hospital the better the outcome. Opening a clogged coronary artery with a balloon catheter called angioplasty not only preserves heart tissue but saves lives. Five to ten years ago the goal was to get patients to a cath lab within an hour and a half of arrival at the hospital. This challenge was considered almost impossible.
In 2005 fewer than half of the patients were treated within that time frame. In 2010 the average time from arrival to angioplasty had dropped to just over an hour for over 90 percent of heart attack patients. Many hospitals are performing at an even better level. To accomplish this impressive result, emergency room personnel and the interventional cardiologists in the cath lab have to work efficiently as a team and coordinate their efforts. If this same type of coordinated care were applied to stroke patients, we are likely to see a similar improvement in outcomes.
[Circulation, Aug. 22, 2011]
The People's Perspective on Medicine