Forsyth Medical Center has adopted a statewide initiative called the RACE (Reperfusion of Acute Myocardia Infarction in Carolina Emergency Departments) Program to reduce the time it takes for a patient with an ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) to receive cardiac catherization once they arrive at the hospital's emergency department. And at Forsyth Medical Center, the program is working amazingly well.
How does the RACE Program work?
According to the American Heart Association, a person having a heart attack needs to have blocked arteries reopened within 90 minutes to have the best chance of perserving the heart muscle and ensuring a full recovery. At Forsyth Medical Center our median time was 68 minutes, which is unheard of nationally. The program works with the cooperation of emergency responders, emergency department staff, and the cardiac catherization team to quickly ensure a patient's well-being from the time the patient enters the emergency room door until they are treated. For example, when paramedics know they are bringing a heart attack patient to the hospital, the ED is alerted. Within minutes, the ED staff can activate the cardiac catherization team. When the patient arrives in the ED, he or she is assessed to ensure the cardiac catherization is an appropriate treatment protocol, and within about 30 minutes, the patient is out of ED and on the way to the cath lab for a balloon angioplasty.
"It is probably safer to have a heart attack in North Carolina than any place else in the country," explains David A. Bohle, MD, an interventional cardiologisy and medical director of the Critical Care Unit (CCU) at Forsyth Medical Center.
Dr. Bohle and the RACE initiative are also working with other hospitals in the Triad region - ofentimes more rural facilities that do not have cardiac catherization labs and will transfer patients to Forsyth Medical Center for angioplasty - to decrease the time it takes for a patient to arrive in Winston-Salem.
