Tag Archives: American Heart Association

Hands-only CPR can save lives

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CPR, and the ethics around performing or not performing it, has been in the news lately. You may recall a recent story [CNN] about a woman at an elderly living facility in California who had stopped breathing and eventually died after staffers declined to perform CPR.

Tracy Stell, BSN, RN, EMT, leads Education Services at Durham Regional—a team who teaches staff CPR, among other skills. Tracy shared his thoughts about the incident in California:

It is disappointing and disheartening that no one was willing to help this person. There were issues around “company policy,” but ultimately the desire to help someone in need comes from within the individual. Helping someone who has suffered a cardiac arrest can be as simple as following the basics of hands-only CPR.

Hands-only CPR focuses on three Cs.

  • Check the patient.
  • Call 911.
  • Compress the center of the chest until help arrives.

The focus is pushing hard and fast on the chest to the beat of the Bee Gee’s song “Stayin’ Alive.”

Also keep in mind that North Carolina is one of many states with a “Good Samaritan law.” These laws are designed to protect people against legal liability when performing CPR on someone who needs it.

Hands-only CPR takes only a few minutes to learn, and performing it could save the life of someone you love. To learn more about hands-only CPR, watch the video below from the American Heart Association.

Durham Regional celebrates National Wear Red Day

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Today Durham Regional recognized National Wear Red Day, which raises awareness about heart disease and its impact on our community and loved ones.

Pictured: Nursing and medical staff on Unit 5-2 Cardiac Telemetry.

Wear Red Day 2

Learn more about heart disease from the American Heart Association, and visit durhamregional.org to find a cardiologist who’s right for you.

Durham Regional recognized for heart attack care

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Durham Regional Hospital has received the American College of Cardiology Foundation’s NCDR ACTION Registry–Get With The Guidelines Platinum Performance Achievement Award for 2012–one of only 164 hospitals nationwide to do so. The award recognizes Durham Regional’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients, and signifies the hospital has reached an aggressive goal of treating these patients to standard levels of care as outlined by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association clinical guidelines and recommendations.

To receive the Platinum Performance Achievement Award, Durham Regional consistently followed the treatment guidelines in the ACTION Registry–GWTG Premier for eight consecutive quarters and met a performance standard of 90 percent for specific performance measures. Following these treatment guidelines increases adherence to ACC/AHA clinical guideline recommendations, monitors drug safety and improves the overall quality of care provided to ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) patients.

“Durham Regional is proud to offer excellent care for heart emergencies,” says Michael Komada, MD, board certified interventional cardiologist. “Our multidisciplinary team comes together after caring for every patient to evaluate our performance and see if there are any areas for improvement. The fact that we are nationally recognized every year, but continue to work on ways we can improve, shows how committed we are to delivering the absolute best possible outcomes for our patients.”

ACTION Registry–GWTG is a partnership between the American College of Cardiology Foundation and the American Heart Association with support from the American College of Emergency Physicians, Society of Chest Pain Centers and the Society of Hospital Medicine. ACTION Registry–GWTG empowers healthcare teams to consistently treat heart attack patients according to the most current, science-based guidelines and establishes a national standard for understanding and improving the quality, safety and outcomes of care provided for patients with coronary artery disease, specifically high-risk STEMI and NSTEMI patients.

In 2011, Durham Regional received the ACTION Registry–GWTG Gold Performance Achievement Award. Gold represented eight consecutive quarters of following treatment guidelines and reaching a performance standard of 85 percent for specific performance measures. This year, by receiving Platinum, Durham Regional achieved the same goals, but met a performance standard of 90 percent.

A look at Durham Regional’s Cath Lab and cardiac care

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Joanne Carey
Cardiovascular Registries Coordinator

When EMS brings a patient to our Emergency Department with concerns for a heart attack, or acute myocardial infarction, the doctors and nurses spring into action. An electrocardiogram (ECG) is taken of the heart to see the heart rhythm. This test is key to determining how severe the heart attack is and its location in the heart. The care team also draws several tubes of blood and notes blood pressure and pulse.

Keep your heart healthy!Based on the ECG, the patient may transfer to our Cardiac Catheterization (Cath) Lab, where a cardiologist and staff insert a catheter into the blocked heart artery through the large artery in the groin area. This allows a small sterile balloon to be inserted into the area of blockage and then inflated to improve the flow of oxygen rich blood. The doctor may also place a sterile stent, a small mesh of wire similar to scaffolding, that will keep the newly inflated artery propped open. The goal is to increase blood flow into the affected area of the heart in less than 90 minutes, at which point the heart muscle can begin to die from lack of oxygen. The damaged area then begins to heal into scar tissue.

While at Durham Regional, patients discuss with their doctor factors that contributed to heart disease, such as blood pressure, cholesterol, exercise levels, smoking and weight. Doctors may recommend lifestyle changes to improve the patient’s health; new medicines to help the heart pump more effectively, lower cholesterol and decrease blood pressure or a combination of lifestyle changes and medications.

Patients are discharged to home usually in two to three days. After a few weeks, they can enter a cardiac rehabilitation program to learn about nutrition, methods to stop smoking and exercise to improve heart health. These programs are supervised by trained cardiac rehab nurses and therapists.

Durham Regional’s Cardiac Cath Lab is available 24/7 for heart emergencies, and we have an accredited cardiac rehab program to guide your recovery. Our cardiology team has consistently been recognized by the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology Foundation for sustained excellence in meeting guidelines for acute myocardial infarction timeliness and therapies.

To learn more about our heart services, visit durhamregional.org/heart.

Durham Regional receives award for heart attack care

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Michael Komada, MD
Cardiologist

At Durham Regional, we are dedicated to providing timely, expert care to heart attack patients. This takes a team and great collaboration across many departments within the hospital, as well as with local EMS and other facilities.

2012 Mission: Lifeline Silver AwardDurham Regional recently received the American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline Silver Receiving Quality Achievement Award. This award recognizes the hospital’s commitment and success in implementing an exceptional standard of care for heart attack patients.

We are excited to be recognized for this achievement, and I am proud of our dedication to continuous improvement in cardiac care.

Each year in the United States, nearly 300,000 people have a STEMI, or ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, the most severe form of heart attack. A STEMI occurs when a blood clot completely blocks an artery to the heart. To prevent death, it’s critical to immediately restore blood flow, either by surgically opening the blocked vessel or by giving clot-busting medication.

Hospitals involved in Mission: Lifeline are part of a system that makes sure STEMI patients get the right care they need as quickly as possible. Mission: Lifeline focuses on improving the system of care for these patients and at the same time improving care for all heart attack patients.

As a “STEMI Receiving Hospital,” Durham Regional meets high standards of performance in quick and appropriate treatment of STEMI patients to open the blocked artery. Before discharge, patients start aggressive risk-reduction therapies such as cholesterol-lowering drugs, aspirin, ACE inhibitors and beta-blockers, and they receive smoking cessation counseling if needed. Hospitals must adhere to these guidelines-based measures at a set level for a designated period of time to be eligible for the achievement awards.

In 2011, Durham Regional received the Bronze Quality Achievement Award. Bronze represented one quarter of meeting or exceeding quality measures. By receiving Silver, Durham Regional achieved four quarters (or one year) of consecutively meeting all the goals outlined by the American Heart Association with the focus on first medical contact to angioplasty in less than 90 minutes.

For information about our heart services, visit durhamregional.org/heart.