RTLS Can Improve Chances Of Heart Attack Survival

Heart disease has been the number-one killer of adults in the US for over 60 years.  However, 75% of US hospitals currently lack primary percutaneous intervention (PCI) capability and rely on receiving centers to accept and treat patients in cardiac distress. Statistics have shown us that chances for recovery are best when these patients receive treatment within 90 minutes of arrival to the Emergency Department (ED). Every minute counts as the patient is assessed in the ED and prepared for transport; failure to transport to a receiving hospital within 30 minutes makes PCI within 90 minutes nearly impossible.

 RTLS Tracking Ensures Proper Patient Care

With a dynamic workflow engine like Amelior Tracker and modules such as EDTracker and CVUTracker, every step of a patient’s journey is captured and displayed automatically so that healthcare providers can ensure proper care. From the ambulance to triage to bed to transport for cardiovascular care, and every other pertinent stage, hospital staff have immediate access to important roadblocks, alerts, status, location, department scheduling, and significant milestones. The blend of RTLS technology and intuitive workflow tracking provides us the opportunity to improve the chances of heart attack survival.

Emergency Department Transport Times

Door-in-to-door-out-time (DIDO) is a measure of the time from the arrival in the ED of a patient experiencing a heart attack until transport to a receiving hospital with PCI capability.  A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on June 22, 2011 reviewed DIDO times for 14,821 heart attack patients transferred for PCI.  In-hospital mortality increased in direct proportion with DIDO time.   Only 11% of the patients had DIDO times of less than 30 minutes.  Fewer than half had times of less than 60 minutes.

Streamlined ED Times

These times can be streamlined with the use of Amelior Tracker. EDTracker captures arrival time and displays it on the status view screen of the application. Users can instantly see key times from triage to disposition. Important alerts automatically notify the users if the patient has been in a particular location for longer than recommended.  For example, a patient experiencing a heart attack and in need of transport can have an alert set for 15 minutes, or for any period of time relevant to that facility: life-saving DIDO time can be met as efficiently as possible and transport information can be sent to EMT and the receiving cardiovascular unit. The arrival at the cardiovascular unit is logged and displayed in CVUTracker, the cardiovascular module of Amelior Tracker. CVUTracker then automatically displays and updates the patient’s progression through the cardiovascular unit. All of this happens in real time and without staff taking time to enter data or make phone calls.

RTLS Provides Data to Improve Patient Care

The advanced capabilities of the Amelior workflow solutions allow for logging, monitoring, and reporting of data such as DIDO and throughput times. Healthcare providers can gather data and use it to enhance best practices and, among many other possibilities, get patients the life-saving care they need. In the hands of healthcare providers committed to driving workflow towards heart attack prevention, the Ameliorsuite is a powerful tool.

Photo Source: http://www.stclair.org/assets/emergency_bur.jpg

~VA Harold Koenig, M.D