SUBMITTED By

CASEY RUSHTON

Crisp Regional Hospital is proud to announce that the 2015-2016 STEMI Care of Excellence Award has been given to Crisp Regional Hospital’s Emergency Department and to Crisp County EMS.  The State Office of Rural Health, together with the Georgia Hospital Association Research and Education Foundation, chose these two recipients based on their outstanding performance in the provision of STEMI Care, thereby creating a culture of safety within this community.  With the award, Crisp Regional Emergency Department received $5000.00 and Crisp County EMS received $2500.00 to use towards treating STEMI patients.

Although all heart attacks are serious, the most dangerous one is a STEMI, ST segment elevation myocardial infarction.  In a STEMI heart attack the artery is 100 percent blocked.  The longer it takes for a patient to receive reperfusion therapy, the higher the risk of death or reduced quality of life.  When a coronary artery is completely blocked, irreversible damage to heart muscle occurs until reperfusion.  Opening the blood vessel and restoring blood flow is done in the hospital with emergency angioplasty or thrombolytic medications. 

According to Melinda Adkins, Crisp Regional Hospital Emergency Department Nursing Director, “Time is muscle in the event of a heart attack.  EMTs, paramedics and emergency departments play a crucial role in rapid detection, treatment, and transport of STEMI patients.” David Edwards, Director of Crisp County EMS, states that “Because of the advanced equipment purchased by CRH through the Rural Health Stabilization Program grant, we are able to gain medical interpretation of the EKGs from the field allowing us the ability to transfer patients directly from the field to a PCI (Percutaneous Coronary Intervention).  This direct transfer further reduces door to needle time for the Cath Lab, which allows for better outcomes.  Since we installed the equipment, we are able to transfer our STEMI patients to the Cath Lab from the field within the 90 minute threshold and to the Cath Lab from the Emergency Department within the 120 minute threshold.”

Properly understanding, detecting, and treating STEMI saves lives.  Crisp Regional is proud to be able to offer reassurance to the community that we are constantly moving forward to offer our patients the very best care and to save lives.