Heart Center's cath lab response to patients with chest pain a topic at Anthem program.

Last year, Anthem, the state's largest health insurance company, began to see a reduction in the time from when a possible heart attack patient entered the St. Francis emergency department to the time that patient was taken to the diagnostic cath lab and the cath inserted. They were impressed—so impressed that St. Francis was asked to share with other quality managers across the state how we did it.

The national standard set in 2006 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is 90 minutes. Last year, the average time in which most St. Francis patients had their cath procedure was 75 minutes, and three out of four patients were treated in less than 90 minutes.

Michele Johnson, R.N., quality manager, made a presentation at Anthem's 2006 Quality Awards program. She was one of several speakers from Indiana hospitals. Johnson described the process of the Emergency Heart Attack Response Team (EHART®) implemented in 2005. The process was designed to decrease the time it took for a patient who presented chest pain at the emergency room to have a diagnostic EKG, be sent to the cardiac catheterization lab and be further diagnosed or treated with angioplasty or stent.