“Time is muscle,” said Aditi Vance, director of quality improvement for Phoebe, and the sooner a heart attack patient is implanted with a percutaneous coronary intervention, or PCI, the less damage may be caused to the heart.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid guidelines are that a patient suffering a heart attack have a PCI inserted within 90 minutes, Vance said.
CMS data released for 2007 showed that only 42 percent of Phoebe patients received a PCI within 90 minutes, below the state average of 63 percent and the national average of 67 percent.
Among Southwest Georgia hospitals to offer the service, in 2007 Phoebe trailed John D. Archbold Memorial Hospital in Thomasville, where 81 percent of patients received a PCI within 90 minutes, and Tift Regional Medical Center, where the percentage was 91 percent during 2007.
Through a concerted effort that involved the investment of $500,000 in new EKG equipment for ambulances in Dougherty and surrounding counties, Phoebe was able to lower its times in part by enabling EMTs to diagnose patients en route to the emergency room, Phoebe Chief Operating Officer Jim Hobson said.
The team effort involved Phoebe’s emergency department, catheterization team and emergency room physicians, Braswell said.
“This is remarkable,” Phoebe’s Chief of Staff Hasan Rizvi said. “A few years ago, we were way below the Georgia average and national average.”
Phoebe launched a campaign Wednesday of achieving 90 minutes for every single patient for the next 100 days, Braswell said.
