Since being allowed to take part in a pilot program to perform Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty procedures, Bayonne Medical Center reported performing three of the life-saving procedures since Jan. 30.
Angioplasty is a treatment that allows doctors to treat patients with clogged arteries to prevent heart attacks by threading a tube through an artery to access the heart in order to install a device that will keep the coronary artery from collapsing.
Last November, BMC won a very heated completion throughout the state allowing it to participate in a safety study that could impact hospitals throughout the nation.
“We’ve done three procedures here so far: One patient would have never survived the transfer to another institution,” said Dr. Peter Wong, Director of the Cardiac Cath Lab at BMC, who performed all three procedures. “The other two patients underwent PCI safely – one went home in 48 hours and the other within 72 hours. The most impressive part is that the care that the patient received by the Cath Lab Staff and the nurses in our Critical Care Unit was as good as any tertiary hospital — but with more of a personal touch.”
Under current health practices, patients seeking angioplasty treatment are required to go a regional cardiac center once a local hospital has issued a diagnosis of heart attack where a back up surgical team must be in place on the area instance that the artery ruptures during the procedure.
This is not only frequently inconvenient to the patient, but denies local hospitals revenue they might otherwise have had by offering treatment.
The study – which allows BMC to perform the procedure – would determine if the backup surgical team is necessary, allowing a few hospitals to perform the procedure without the unit in place.
“Our family of physicians at Bayonne Medical Center will be positively affected by having this essential treatment option for their patients suffering from heart attacks,” said Robert H. Evans, President & CEO of BCM. “Our interventional cardiologists will benefit from having the ability to intervene though PCI on site as opposed to having to travel to a distant facility to perform the same procedure. Physicians, even those not presently associated with BMC, will benefit as well because they too can send their cardiac patients to our facility and take advantage of our Primary PCI program.”
The procedure, hospital officials claim, will reshape the BMC future.
Treatment options for people on the verge of a heart attack are limited. Patients either receive clot dissolving medicine or get the PCI procedure. Hospital officials said tests show PCI is more effective and has several side benefits. Medications for dissolving clots sometimes put the patient at risk of a stroke – since clots can sometimes travel to the brain. The procedure also tends to preserve heart muscle, and can be applied quickly – an essential element during a heart crisis situation.
Hospital officials said that if a hospital cannot offer PCI for heart attacks, the delayed treatment can affect the prognosis negatively. Also, any hospital without Primary PCI will care for less cardiac patients over time as the emergency room cases shift dramatically to those hospitals that can provide this life saving intervention. Presently, only the JCMC and the BMC have this program in Hudson County.
Evans said the major winner in all of this is the Bayonne community.
“Many people expect that when they arrive at the doors of their local ER in critical condition, any and all help they need is just inside,” he said. “Before the advent of PCI this was not the case when it came to heart attacks. Patients were often transferred to another facility where the time delay reduced the overall benefits of the treatment.”
In a heart attack, time means heart muscle. The faster a patient gets to the ER and has treatment started, the better the chances of a successful outcome.
“After years of working to bring this life saving procedure to Bayonne Medical Center, we can now confidently offer a complete array of treatment options for heart attack patients. This can mean lives saved and improved quality of life for heart attack patients,” Evans said. “Ultimately, PCI can truly be the gift of life for some residents within the city of Bayonne and beyond.”