D2B Kudo's

Despite all that is going on in our country, when you stop and put things in perspective, few things in life are as serious as they seem. As one of our team members said to me in the elevator, "Today is a great day, I woke up and I'm able to live another day!" It was a warm reminder to keep the important things in life in perspective, like our health and well being!

For some though, that very livelihood is threatened by heart disease and heart attack. According to the American Heart Association, approximately every 65 seconds someone in the US dies from a coronary event. As a major cardiovascular institute in Kentucky and part of the only system accredited chest pain center in Louisville, being prepared for a patient having a heart attack is something that we must be in a constant state of readiness.

From the time a patient presents to the Emergency Department having a heart attack (specifically an ST segment elevation myocardial infartion or STEMI) to the time they are wheeled into the Cardiac Cath Lab, are prepped, and have a catheter inserted into the heart to unblock the culprit lesion causing the attack is the time measurement used to determine an organizations effectiveness in providing emergency cardiac care. The term for this process is called the "Door to Balloon" time otherwise known as "D2B."

In our never ending pursuit of clinical excellence, reducing our D2B time is a process that our team has placed great focus on and as a result we have seen great improvement. To do this takes practice, coordination, and most of all teamwork between the Emergency Department, Cath Lab and our physicians. One new addition to help speed this process in Louisville is a partnership between the local hospitals and EMS that allows paramedics in the field to transmit EKGs in the field to the hospital while in route so that an interpretation can be obtained and the heart attack team can be activated before the patient even arrives to the hospital.

The saying is "time is muscle" and every minute counts when dealing with these most critical of situations. Current standards state that an organization must have a D2B time of 90 minutes or less in order to be meeting national guidelines. Today our team received its first EKG transmission from EMS and as a result accomplished a D2B time of 48 minutes for one of our patients having a heart attack - nearly half the national standard!

To all of our team members and physicians who have studied, practiced, and refined our processes to be able to deliver the best care possible to our patients, today should be seen as a great reward for your efforts. I thank you for your commitment and more importantly I know the families of our patients thank you for helping to save the life of a loved one today! Great work!

D2B Kudo's