MESA, Ariz. (July 17, 2008) -- East Valley residents suffering from heart attacks would be better off dialing 911 and requesting to be taken to Banner Heart Hospital than driving to the nearest emergency room, recent results from the Cardiac Alert program show.

The American College of Cardiology has set a standard at 90 minutes from the time heart attack patients walk into an emergency room to the time their arteries are opened for surgery using a balloon catheter.

Six months after implementing the Cardiac Alert Program, Banner Heart Hospital has seen its patients go from "door to balloon" in less than 56 minutes, and in one case 31 minutes.

The program has also shown that Baywood patients can go from a 911 call to having their artery opened in less than 75 minutes.

The Cardiac Alert Program was started at the Banner Heart Hospital in January after months of collaboration between Banner Heart doctors, Emergency Medical Services paramedics in the East Valley and the Arizona Department of Health Services.

From January to May of this year, 17 patients went through the Cardiac Alert Program, which works to increase the efficiency between paramedics, emergency-room doctors and interventional cardiologist and cardiac surgeons.

The Cardiac Alert process:

• An East Valley resident feels chest pain and dials 911
• Responding EMS paramedics, who have had advanced training to interpret electrocardiograms, assess the patient and fax the reports to the ER at Banner Baywood Medical Center from the field
• The paramedics confirm the reports over the phone with an ER doctor
• Paramedics call the Acute Cardiac Transfer/Acceptance call line at Banner Heart Hospital with patient information
• The Cardiac Alert program is activated, meaning admitting experts begin processing patient information and personnel from the catheterization laboratory begin preparing for the patient
• The patient is quickly pushed through the emergency room and taken to have their artery opened in less than 56 minutes

Banner Heart Hospital Chief Medical Officer Mark Starling, MD, said the program has worked because the staff took its time to train paramedics to identify an electrocardiogram correctly more than 90 percent of the time.

Still, “we made it faster than we thought,” Starling said. “It was a real surprise that the time from the paramedic call from the field to Banner Heart Hospital to the time the artery was open was also under 90 minutes.”

The next step for the Cardiac Alert Program is to collaborate with the Mesa Fire Department to use the system and continue to spread the word to other communities.

“Apache Junction, Gilbert and Mesa need to know about the Cardiac Alert program,” Starling said. “If the community doesn’t know, it’s not going to get the care it deserves. We have a track record nobody can match. It’s worth the drive.”

ABOUT BANNER HEART HOSPITAL
Banner Heart Hospital is one of the largest free-standing heart hospitals in the nation. It has been named twice as one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals® for cardiovascular care by Thomson healthcare business. This annual award for cardiovascular services objectively measures performance on the key criteria at the nation’s top performing, acute-care hospitals.