Patients taken directly to a hospital that is able to treat heart attacks with percutaneous coronary intervention (or angioplasty) received treatments 31 minutes faster on average than patients who were first taken to a hospital without PCI and then transferred, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Quality of Care and Outcomes Research 2012 Scientific Sessions.
Researchers matched North Carolina's emergency medical services records from June 2008 to September 2010 to a clinical registry of patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction. Sixty-three percent of STEMI patients went directly to a PCI-capable hospital and 37 percent first went to a non-PCI hospital and were later transferred for a PCI procedure.
Results showed that patients in the first group received PCI or clot-busting drugs in an average of 93 minutes from first medical contact. The second group — in which patients were first sent to a non-PCI hospital — received treatment in an average of 124 minutes. Similarly, the time from FMC to PCI averaged 93 minutes for the PCI-capable group and 161 minutes for the non-PCI hospital group.
Overall, patients who went directly to a PCI-capable hospital were nearly three times as likely to receive treatment within guideline recommendations as were patients who had to be transferred for care.
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Researchers matched North Carolina's emergency medical services records from June 2008 to September 2010 to a clinical registry of patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction. Sixty-three percent of STEMI patients went directly to a PCI-capable hospital and 37 percent first went to a non-PCI hospital and were later transferred for a PCI procedure.
Results showed that patients in the first group received PCI or clot-busting drugs in an average of 93 minutes from first medical contact. The second group — in which patients were first sent to a non-PCI hospital — received treatment in an average of 124 minutes. Similarly, the time from FMC to PCI averaged 93 minutes for the PCI-capable group and 161 minutes for the non-PCI hospital group.
Overall, patients who went directly to a PCI-capable hospital were nearly three times as likely to receive treatment within guideline recommendations as were patients who had to be transferred for care.
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