LAS VEGAS, NV --(Marketwired - November 15, 2016) - Southern Nevada emergency medical services (EMS) personnel respond to nearly 11,000 chest pains calls each year. For the first time, now EMS and hospital care teams will use a secure Internet connection to work together more efficiently to respond to those heart emergencies. That's because Sunrise Health System is launching a new system that provides faster treatment for patients in Las Vegas and the surrounding region who experience the most dangerous type of heart attack.
The LIFENET® System from Physio-Control is a cloud-based data network that can help shorten the critical period between the patient's arrival to the hospital and the start of life-saving medical care -- an interval known as door-to-balloon time. The faster patients receive treatment the more likely they are to have a positive outcome. With the LIFENET System, Sunrise Health Systems' member hospitals -- they include MountainView Hospital, Southern Hills Hospital, Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center and Sunrise Children's Hospital -- can help improve patients' chances for survival.
"Sunrise Health System is fully committed to making sure a patient with a heart-related emergency can get immediate access to enhanced heart care -- even before he or she reaches our doors," said Daniel Llamas, Sunrise Health Systems' Emergency Medical Services director. "Having this capability helps our community of first responders meet our shared goal which is to save more lives."
The most serious form of heart attack poses the biggest threat to the heart muscle and can result in a patient's death or serious disability. The heart attack is stopped with the insertion of a balloon catheter, called angioplasty, or the placement of a stent, a small mesh tube, within the patient's blocked artery. Both procedures are designed to open the artery and restore blood flow. Studies show that minimizing this time is key to improving patients' chances for survival.
About Sunrise Health
Sunrise Health is the most technologically advanced hospital network in the Southwest. Committed to providing the finest healthcare, Sunrise Health includes Sunrise Hospital & Medical Center, MountainView Hospital, Southern Hills Hospital and Medical Center and Sunrise Children's Hospital, as well as outpatient diagnostic, imaging and surgical centers. Specialty services include a suite of the latest diagnostic and surgical technologies, advanced cardiovascular services, comprehensive neurological services, a designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Nevada Neurosciences Institute, The Breast Center at Sunrise, MountainView Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery Associates, the state's most comprehensive Children's Hospital, women's healthcare services and Las Vegas' first network of Certified Stroke Centers and Accredited Chest Pain Centers. For more information on Sunrise Health, visit SunriseHealthInfo.com .
About the LIFENET System
LIFENET is a comprehensive, cloud-based platform that provides EMS and hospital care teams with innovative tools for quick, reliable access to critical patient and device data, resulting in improved patient care, ongoing process improvement and greater operational efficiency.
Accessing LIFENET through a secure Internet connection, paramedics send a patient's electrocardiogram (ECG) data to hospital care teams, which are then able to quickly identify critical heart attack patients, determine where to route them for care and have staff prepared before the patient arrives -- reducing time to treatment. Hospital teams can also engage with remote clinicians for decision support through a dedicated LIFENET iPhone application.
LIFENET is administered by Physio-Control and works quietly in the background, allowing paramedics, physicians and nurses to focus on treatment decisions and patient care. In addition, by speeding communication among members of the care team, LIFENET helps the team save critical time in delivering treatments. Today, LIFENET is making a difference for whole communities as increasing numbers of medical professionals turn to LIFENET to give critical heart patients their best possible outcomes.
About Heart Attacks
The most critical form of heart attack is called STEMI (ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction) and affects close to 400,000 people every year in the U.S. alone, according to the American Heart Association. In STEMI heart attacks, coronary arteries experience a total blockage, causing various sections of the heart muscle to die. In contrast, non-STEMI, or NSTEMI, heart attacks are the result of a partial arterial blockage. To determine if a patient is experiencing a STEMI, medical teams look at the results of the patient's ECG reading: if the ST segment of the reading is elevated, the patient has suffered a STEMI heart attack.
Studies show that when door-to-balloon time is 90 minutes or less, patients experiencing a STEMI heart attack have significantly better outcomes and shorter hospital stays. LIFENET can play a key role in reducing door-to-balloon time, ensuring that patients get the treatment they need as quickly as possible.
About Physio-Control
Physio-Control, Inc . is part of the medical division of Stryker Corporation and is the world's leading provider of professional emergency medical response solutions that predict or intervene in life-threatening emergencies. The company's products include LIFEPAK ® monitor/defibrillators, LIFEPAK ® and HeartSine ® automated external defibrillators, the LIFENET ® System, HealthEMS ® electronic patient care reporting (ePCR) software, LUCAS ® 2 Chest Compression System, TrueCPR ™ coaching device, and more.
Contact: Stacy Acquista Assistant Vice President, Marketing Sunrise Health System 702.938.9675 office Stacy.Acquista@HCAHealthcare.com
