Page 77 - South Mississippi Living - July, 2016

After the heart-healthy breakfast (above), the group of community leaders and media took a tour (below) to illustrate the smooth transition from ambulance to emergency room.
Southeast Affiliate vice president of development. “We
are working to improve the cardiovascular health of
all Americans by 20 percent and reducing deaths from cardiovascular disease and stroke by 20 percent by the year 2020.”
In her presentation, Kathy Ladner, vice president of Memorial’s cardiac services and patient care/quality,
228.604.5307 228.867.4000 www.heart.org www.gulfportmemorial.com
stressed that anyone experiencing chest pain should call for an ambulance at the first sign of distress. “Do not drive yourself,” she said. “The ambulance personnel can do an EKG and transfer that information to the hospital and we can then mobilize the cath lab. We’re ready when you arrive, and a lot of people are working on your heart problem.”
She explained that 90 minutes is the crucial time to save
a heart patient. Working together, American Medical Response (AMR) and Memorial have the time down to
70 minutes from the patient’s door to cath lab balloon treatment time. So far this year the average time is 65 minutes. “By saving minutes, we’re saving heart muscle to minimize the impact to the patient,” Ladner said. “We have two cath lab teams on call.”
Gregory Doyle, manager of operations for AMR, said it takes only about 45 seconds to get an ambulance on the way when a call is received. “We take steps to identify the problem and work as a team with the hospital,” he said. “We can send information by smart phone or computer to the hospital so the ER is ready for the patient. That’s so critical.”
That fact is supported by Margaret Shore, manager of emergency services at Memorial. “Chest pain is a priority here. With the information from AMR we have time to get ready. The patient can bypass the emergency room and go straight to the cath lab,” she said, “but we’re always trying to improve.”
Cath Lab Manager Stephen Scott calls heart attacks “widow makers” because 85 percent of patients are men. He has seen many improvements in technology in his 30 years of experience. “The computer program we have shows any blockage so we can shoot dye in and put a small balloon in to open it,” he said. “Then we can put in a stent to open the vessel and get the blood flowing back to the heart and get oxygen to the heart,” he said. “Now we can put medication into the wall of the artery to keep it open. With this technology, patients come back only five percent of the time.”
He added that patients are usually discharged in a couple of days.
228.897.1196 www.amr.net/miss
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2016 Gulf Coast Heart Walk October 1, 8 a.m. Jones Park, Gulfport www.gulfcoastheartwalk.org