b'42Your Heart is in the Right PlaceThe highly coordinated care at ConcordThey also work together Hospital Cardiovascular Institute didntto improve their develop overnight. Building the teamlifesaving care. With and community partnerships, honingCardiovascular Institute lifesaving skills and earning the trust ofleadership, the cardiac patients has been a concentrated eff ortand ED teams review for years. performance to address One important focus is heart attackissues and learn how to care, where early intervention savesavoid delays in moving lives and heart muscle. patients to the Catheterization Suite Providers at the Hospital and infrom the ED. communities throughout central New Hampshire have worked together forThe team quickly confi rms the patientsYou have to keep working at it to the past 20 years to develop and refi necondition, checks for other issues theymaintain that skillset, Dr. Wicks said. a system that gives heart attack victimsmight need to address and sends theIts not like you just develop it a greater chance of survival. patient to the Catheterization Suite,and forget about it. Its a lot of where they can open clogged arteriesongoing work.It starts with Emergency Medicalwithin crucial minutes of arrival.Services (EMS) responders whoPart of the work involves recognize whats happening at theIt wasnt always that way. In the 1990s,communicating clearly with patients patients house, said Dr. CharlesDr. Wicks said that EMS would bringand building trust so they will be Wicks of Concord Hospital Cardiology. the patient in, doctors would performengaged in their care.They check an EKG that shows its aan EKG, and if they confi rmed a heartTheres no way for a patient to heart attack and have the equipmentattack, would call the cardiac teamunderstand everything that is going to transmit that information to thein, sometimes from home. on and everything that we are doing to Hospital electronically, while they areHeart attack patients often sayhelp them, so there is a lot of ongoing getting the patient ready for transport. the activity of multiple providerslearning after the heart attack is fi xed, With the early notifi cation, the Hospitalworking swiftly to help them seemsDr. Wicks said. We have to be working assembles the cardiac team while thechoreographed. Thanks to trainingclosely with them through the Hospital patient is on the way. and experience, it is. and in the outpatient setting to convey Because we work as a team so much,everything they need to know and By the time the patient gets here,make sure it sinks in.there is a large group of people readywere able tomove quickly and in the ED, Dr. Wicks said. Theresefficiently, speaking the same language,[ see Story, page 71 ]the ER staff , with physicians andor at times not having to say much at all nurses, and another part of the teamas we anticipate what everyone in the in the background that works in theroom needs, Dr. Wicks said.CatheterizationSuite who are activated to prepare the room.'