Lane Cardiology Department Beats National Average

Submitted by Bevi Olivier 

LOCAL CARDIOVASCULAR CENTER BEATS NATIONAL AVERAGE IN TREATING EMERGENCY HEART ATTACK PATIENTS

HOUMA— Cardiovascular Institute of the South (CIS) and Lane Regional Medical Center (Lane) are proud to announce that the door-to-balloon time at Lane Cardiovascular Center for the second quarter averaged 65 minutes compared to the national average of 90 minutes.

“Decreasing door-to-balloon time saves muscle, and in turn saves lives,” said Laura Peel, Lane’s Cardiology Product Line Manager.  “The longer it takes for you to open a completely occluded coronary artery, the more tissue damage is occurring.”

Door-to-balloon time is a quality measure indicating the amount of time between a heart attack patient's arrival at the emergency room to the time that patient’s blocked artery is reopened in the catheterization lab.

Hospitals treating heart attack patients with emergency procedures should reliably achieve a door-to-balloon time of 90 minutes or less according to national guidelines by the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA).  This is because the sooner the treatment, the less chance for cardiac muscle damage and the more chance to improve that patient’s quality of life.

Lane’s cardiology department recently instituted a one-call pager system to contact staff when an emergency heart attack patient arrives.  This process eliminated the need to make multiple phone calls to many individuals which decreased overall door-to-balloon time significantly. 

“Since this new practice was put in place, we have saved an average of 12 minutes in overall call time that was previously used to individually call the necessary staff for an emergent heart attack patient,” said Peel.  “And we are continually looking for ways to improve our times and patient outcomes so that we can continue to provide excellent care and service.”

Lane is in partnership with CIS to bring world-class physicians, state-of-the-art diagnostic capabilities and the latest technology to detect and treat heart and peripheral vascular disease to the Zachary region.  Lane is a 137-bed acute care hospital with a local investment of more than 650 caring staff members and 100 physicians dedicated to providing the latest technology and services. CIS serves communities throughout Louisiana, as well as national and international patients, at its 10 clinics with a team of nearly 450 dedicated team members.  For more information on the Lane Cardiovascular Center, please call (225) 658-6765.