Going 'Door-to-Door', Saving Lives; The Prairie Heart STAT Program
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Two cardiologists from Prairie Heart Cardiovascular at Memorial Hospital of Carbondale--Dr. Cesar Coello and Dr. Raed Al-Dallow; Southern Illinois STAT Heart coordinator Pam Shadowens, R.N.; and Angela Boyett, emergency room R.N. and coordinator of Pinckneyville Community Hospital's STAT heart program coordinator are literally going "door to door" to celebrate the success of cardiac medicine in Southern Illinois.
The four spoke at a symposium Thursday night at the Carterville Civic Center on the success of the Southern Illinois STAT heart program which gets heart patients into local ERs, then transferred to the heart catheterization center in Carbondale and into a recovery room in 90 minutes or less.
The four spoke on behalf of STAT heart team members in Pinckneyville, Du Quoin, Benton, Murphysboro, Eldorado, Anna, Harrisburg, Carbondale and in the near future the Veterans Administration Hospital in Marion.
Dr. Al-Dallow pointed to the success rate of the program, the cost-effectiveness of the program, the fact that the times from "door-to-door" are coming down and certainly that the program is saving lives
Boyett shared the podium with the three on behalf of her own team at Pinckneyville Community Hospital and told the gathering of 100 doctors, nurses, EMTs, ER staff members, lab technicians and administrators, "Size matters-- Not the size of the hospital, but the size of the commitment."
Boyett walked doctors, nurses and STAT Heart Team members through a case at Pinckneyville Community Hospital. She spoke of a 54-year-old white male who presented with complaints of chest pain for 30 minutes at home after awakening that morning around 9 a.m. Upon initial assessment of complaints of chest pressure, shortness of breath and is diaphoretic, it was learned he had no medical history and was not on medication. He had a 33-year-history of smoking--three packs a day at first and now one pack a day. An EKG was taken and immediately STAT Heart was activated. Within two minutes, the EKG was done, by 10:43 a.m. the ambulance was enroute and protocol initiated and by 11:08 a.m. the ambulance was on its way to Carbondale with the patient.
The patient's outcome was positive.
Boyett told guests of the symposium, "Because of the Prairie Heart STAT program, time and proximity as a medical obstacle just ended." She said it's a team effort that is paying off with the enlistment of team members, monthly in-service training and skill assessments. Boyett has even begun tracking the success of the program.
"Whether simply diagnostic or critically interventional, we know the STAT program in partnership with hospitals works," she said.
"Pro-active approaches to cardiac intervention define all of us. It behooves all of us to get it right. All of Southern Illinois is watching." she said -- and with great admiration for the men and women of the program.