SOUTH LAKE COUNTY ?Lake County Fire Protection District (LCFPD) is better equipped to provide emergency services to victims of heart attack. The district is excited to announce that it established a pre-hospital cardiac alert program within its service area, which includes the City of Clearlake and the town of Lower Lake.
The Pre-Hospital Cardiac Alert program is designed to decrease the time it takes to get a heart attack victim to a hospital”s cardiac catheterization lab for treatment. The program allows medical personnel to perform diagnostic tests for heart trauma while still in the field.
With new equipment that was recently installed in district ambulances, treating paramedics can now better identify potentially fatal cardiac rhythms in the pre-hospital setting and request an air ambulance for immediate transfer from the field to one of the three designated specialty cardiac centers.
“Cardiac Alert means quicker treatment for heart attack victims and more lives saved,” said Willie Sapeta, LCFPD battalion chief and paramedic. “Cardiac Alert improves the patient”s chances of survival and helps minimize the amount of heart damage. Rapid treatment has a tremendous benefit for the patient.”
To implement the program, the district installed a 12-lead electrocardiogram machine in each of its ambulance units. “Previously, our ambulances were like many of America”s emergency medical vehicles, having only 3-lead EKGs, which don”t reveal as much about a patient”s condition as do the 12-lead EKGs,” Sapeta explained.
“Paramedics can now diagnose the presence of a heart attack, begin critical treatment and alert the hospital”s cardiac and emergency room staffs so they can set up treatment procedures in advance of the ambulance”s arrival,” Sapeta concluded.
The Cardiac Alert program was launched in May. Paramedics have been trained to interpret the 12-lead EKG readings and are now using the technology in the field. “We had a success story the day we went in,” Sapeta boasted.
According to Adam Thoman, an engineer and paramedic with the district, a great benefit of the program is the way the pre-hospital personnel performs this procedure, interprets the findings and arranges for the patient to be transferred from the field via air ambulance directly to the cardiac cath lab to be treated, rather than first undergoing examination in the ER as previously done.
“The patient”s immediate response to treatment as well as long-term outcome is improved with rapid angioplasty,” Thoman said. (Angioplasty is the standard treatment for heart attack victims.)
Sapeta added that the national standard for evaluation of treatment in angioplasty for a heart attack is the time it takes for a patient to arrive at the hospital until balloon angioplasty is performed. “This national ?door-to-balloon” standard is 90 minutes or less. However, the average is more than 100 minutes at most hospitals,” Sapeta said. “In Lake County, Cardiac Alert decreased the ?door-to-balloon” time to only 35 to 60 minutes.”
Installation of the 12-lead EKG machines was completed at a total cost of $32,500. The program was made possible through funding provided by the LCFPD Fire Chief Jim McMurray and the district”s board of directors, which place emphasis on improving emergency/trauma response, prevention of coronary trauma through advanced pre-hospital recognition, optimized cardiac services and emergency treatment to improve life expectancy of cardiac and trauma victims.
“LCFPD”s mission is the prevention of trauma,” said Chief McMurray. “Lake County fire ambulances can now bypass Redbud Hospital where they once would have stopped so a heart attack victim could be examined before being transported to an out-of-county designated cardiac cath lab and instead go directly to these facilities.”
According to Sapeta, the district decided to establish the program based on a study of the amount of cardiac patients personnel respond to throughout the district. Sapeta said the South Lake Fire Protection District and the Kelseyville Fire Department are also equipped with the program.
Contact Denise Rockenstein at drockenstein@clearlakeobserver.com.
