Published: July 08, 2009 01:45 pm      

Monitors will mean quicker response for heart attack victims in Floyd County

System should be online by end of month

Floyd Memorial Hospital and Health Services and local emergency medical services workers will be better prepared for heart attacks calls, thanks to new portable EKG monitors that allow for diagnoses before the patient reaches the hospital, officials said Tuesday.

“It saves the [emergency room] from having to call somebody down to do a 12-lead [EKG] and make a decision from there,” said Tom Williams, the EMS director for the New Albany Fire Department. “The doctor can make the decision based on the 12-lead [EKG] we transmitted [from the ambulance] and have a treatment plan ready when we walk in the back door.”

A Floyd County ambulance and a Clark County EMS unit from the Sellersburg Fire Department that serves Floyd County will get the new equipment, thanks to a grant from the Department of Homeland Security.

The $60,000 in funding also will be enough for other companies’ units to receive upgrades to their monitoring systems to be on the same system, said Linda Minton, emergency room director.

“Essentially, all the services that cover Floyd County will have the capability. They will be online with us 24/7,” she said.

Minton said the system should be completely operational by the end of the month.

Currently, Floyd County EMS can only alert the emergency room and then give the victim IVs and other medication. Clark County can send in a single-lead EKG ahead of its arrival, but only through a regular phone line, which would slow rescue time, said Daniel Jacobs, the EMS director for the Sellersburg Fire Department.

The 12-lead system gives an all-around view of the heart and can be sent while the unit is en route, which gives the hospital valuable information but will save more time.

“To reduce that time saves heart muscle, and ... time is of the utmost urgency,” Jacobs said.

These 12-lead units are the growing trend across the nation. Minton said treatment times are being cut by 10 to 20 minutes because the emergency room receives data ahead of arrival.

“The whole idea is to go from the emergency at the scene or wherever they pick up the person to the emergency department to the cath lab as quickly as possible,” said Joe Vetter, the hospital’s EMS coordinator.

He said the advance look at the heart also tells doctors if the victim has had a STEMI attack or not. STEMI or ST segment elevation myocardial infraction attacks are more severe.

While the hospital held work sessions earlier this summer, Tuesday was the first time EMS workers were able to train with the new monitors, Vetter said.