Kudos from the Cath Lab: Volume 3

Aetna Ambulance has been operating 12-lead capable cardiac monitors since the early 2000s and currently operate LifePak 15s. Sophisticated and portable, these monitors are capable of four and 12-lead EKGs, defibrillation, cardioversion, external pacemaking, oxygen saturation and carbon monoxide measurement, pulse oximetry and CO2 detection.

Simply having 12-lead capable cardiac-monitors is no longer the standard. Aetna has equipped their LifePaks with a wireless modem that can transmit 12-lead EKG directly to a terminal in the ED as well as the smartphone of the ED physician, the cardiologist and the interventionalist.

This allows the cardiac catherization laboratory to be “activated” from the field, placing highly skilled staff on alert and bypassing the ED entirely.

The content that follows is excerpted from an email from the Hartford Hospital cardiac team regarding a transmission and bypass that occurred just this week: 

Great job everyone.

I though you would like to know that today’s STEMI times were as follows:

Door to Balloon Time – 36 minutes

EMS to Balloon time – 69 minutes

The system-organized response was initiated in the field (town withheld) where the pre-hospital ECG was transmitted by AETNA Ambulance to the Hartford Hospital Emergency Department and then forwarded to the Cath Lab (Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory).

Many should be congratulated, in particular:

1. Drs. McKay and Almahasnen and the Cath Lab team (A. Almeida, R. Fisher, E. Letoutneau)
2. Drs. Smally, Sullivan and the ED team (C. Urso, A. Mugovero)
3. Last but not least, the AETNA Paramedics Ashley Harkins and Preston Ryzak for timely ECG interpretation and transmission.

Respectfully,

Marcin Dada, MD, Associate Director of Cardiology Administration

Read more such stories on our site: www.asm-aetna.com/blog.