Beach fire district begins life-saving program
Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District and Health Park Hospital’s Emergency Department are excited to announce the implementation of “real time” electrocardiogram transmissions from the field to the Emergency Room. This process will enable patients suffering from a heart attack “myocardial infarction,” to receive definitive cardiac care with greater efficiency, thus saving dying cardiac muscle. This program will be the first of its kind in Southwest Florida. It is funded through a grant issued to Health Park Hospital through The Gulf Harbour Memorial Foundation.
Fort Myers Beach paramedics, as well as all public safety agencies in Southwest Florida, are able to utilize a cardiac monitor to determine if patients are having a myocardial infarction when treating them in the “field.” New regional as well as national protocols implemented in the last few years recognize a certain criteria in myocardial infarctions known as “Stemi -Alerts.”
A Stemi- Alert verifies that indeed a patient is suffering from dying heart muscle, and the definitive care required is: early recognition; proper treatment and stabilization; and transport to an appropriate cardiac facility that is able to perform cardiac catheterization. The missing link has been: early confirmation of the Emergency Room physician; and early activation of the cardiac catheterization team.
Through Bluetooth technology, and wireless data transfer protocols, all of the above mentioned steps might now be one continuous link of care from the paramedics to the physicians to the Cardiologists. “Time is Muscle” when related to myocardial infarctions, and this process may save up to 20 minutes or more of dying muscle, which can undisputedly make a difference in a patients survival.
According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Heart disease is still the Number One Cause of Death in the United States. About every 25 seconds, an American will have a coronary event, and about one every minute will die from one.”
Hopefully, this first pilot program will assist in the process of other Southwest Florida public safety agencies in receiving grant money, so all the residents and visitors to our area may receive the benefits of early recognition, early confirmation and the quick definitive care of myocardial infarctions.
The program was initiated on July 13, 2011. Within 6 days the first transmission proved beneficial to a patient suffering from a myocardial infarction. The patient was in the Cardiac Catheterization Lab at Health Park Hospital within 34 minutes of the Fort Myers Beach paramedics arrival.