Health library

Good news about heart attacks

Jackson Hospital is taking aim at heart attacks by working together with the Montgomery Fire Department to reduce the time it takes to evaluate patients with chest pain.

This exciting development will help shorten “door to balloon” (D2B) time, a proven indicator of positive patient outcomes. D2B refers to the amount of time that passes between the patient arriving at the hospital and doctors performing cardiac catheterization.

To help reduce this critical time interval, the Montgomery Fire Department has installed new equipment with Bluetooth wireless capability, allowing them to transmit 12-lead electrocardiograms (EKGs) directly to the Jackson Hospital Emergency Department, right from the patient’s home.

A small receiver in the Emergency Department then picks up this com­munication and allows Jackson emer­gency physicians to evaluate the EKG and decide if the cardiac catheterization team should be activated before the patient arrives at the hospital.

This remote EKG evaluation saves valuable time, which in turn saves heart muscle. The national D2B standard is 90 minutes. The addition of this new technology will help Jackson Hospital reach this important goal.