When Eliminating Chaos Means Saving Lives

You've heard it before: "Time is tissue."

When it comes to heart attack, this statement is painstakingly true. Only a few years ago, it was standard for patients to wait two hours before cardiologists were able to get their blood flowing again. Now, thanks in large part to national goals set forth by the American College of Cardiology, the standard for case completion of heart attacks is 90 minutes. 

According to a recent article in the New York Times, a small community hospital in the town of Camden, New Jersey was able to reduce its average STEMI treatment times from 93 minutes in 2007 to 71 minutes in 2011 to 50 minutes currently.

But, it was no easy feat. Staff members from the hospital reflected on and adjusted past protocols, identifying their requirement to have a cardiologist look at the patient's ECG first and then decide whether to pass it on to an interventional cardiologist as a major hurdle to achieving goal times. This meant that the E.R. doctor would first have to fax the ECG to the cardiologist, who would often not be able to read it and would ask for it to be sent again. Frequently, it would take 10 very precious minutes for the ECG to finally reach the cardiologist only to have him confirm that it is a STEMI, and only THEN would the team call the interventional doctor - who might still be out to dinner at a restaurant 20 minutes away. This meant a major drain on time for the care team and a loss of tissue for the patient. 

Transfer patients present an even greater challenge that many hospitals continue to wrestle with. According to the article, Dr. Nallamothu, of the University of Michigan says that a nearby community hospital was “30 minutes [away] by car and three hours by ambulance” because of the chaotic web of phone calls that must be completed between the community hospital and the interventional facility. 

Imagine if the entire care team could get the ECG INSTANTLY and clearly on the very devices they all carry around with them. No waiting for the fax machine to print, no need to waste minutes tracking down the right doctor to look at the ECG, no delay in getting the message to the cath lab. Imagine a world where transfers are initiated with one tap of a button and are completed just as seamlessly. Now stop imagining, and check out Pulsara for yourself.