FORT WAYNE – Local hospitals have “dramatically” cut treatment times for major heart attack patients in the past few years, mirroring a national trend reported Monday.
Only 44 percent of heart attack patients in 2005 were treated in the recommended time of 90 minutes. But by last year that rate had more than doubled to 91 percent, according to study data published online Monday by an American Heart Association journal, Circulation.
Hospitals track how long it takes from the time a heart attack patient enters the hospital until he undergoes angioplasty, generally considered the most effective treatment. A cardiologist pushes a tube through the clogged artery, opens it with a balloon and inserts a mesh stent to prop it open.
Medical guidelines say “door-to-balloon” time should be less than 90 minutes. Any delay means more heart damage and risk of dying.
Lutheran Heart Center reported a 54-minute average for the three-month period that ended June 30. The average treatment time was 57 minutes during the previous three months.
“It’s reducing every quarter,” Dr. Steve Orlow said. “We want the shortest door-to-balloon time possible.”
Among the tweaks Lutheran has made is contacting doctors and other emergency staff simultaneously rather than one after another to brief them on a patient’s condition.
Parkview Heart Institute averages 60-something minutes from “door to balloon.” The average was closer to 90 or 100 minutes six years ago, said Dr. Roy Robertson, a cardiologist.
Robertson, medical director of Parkview Heart Institute, said his staff has created a process for treating heart attack patients that includes contacting staff in the catheter lab faster than before.
“What we’ve noticed is a rather dramatic reduction in time,” he said.
Even so, Robertson stresses quality of care.
“It can become a race to see how quickly you can do it,” he said of performing angioplasty.
Heart attacks are caused by clogged arteries that prevent enough oxygen and blood from reaching the heart. Each year, about 250,000 people in the United States and more than 3 million worldwide suffer a major one, where a main artery is completely blocked.
Orlow and Robertson stressed that patients who suspect they might be having a heart attack should seek care immediately.
No one, they said, should drive past an emergency room on the way to a larger hospital or one that specializes in heart conditions.
“You don’t have to go to one specific hospital because we’re going to get you where you need to go,” Robertson said.
Orlow said doctors finesse procedures to shave off a few minutes but studies show patients wait an average of two hours before seeking treatment. The biggest potential for gaining life-saving minutes is during the time people spend in their homes or at work, wondering whether their symptoms are significant.
He tells people to call an ambulance “sooner rather than later.”
The national data were published online Monday by an American Heart Association journal, Circulation. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services paid for the study, which involved more than 300,000 patients who had an emergency angioplasty at hospitals that get Medicare reimbursements.
The researchers looked at records from 2005, just before campaigns to shorten treatment times were launched, through September 2010.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
