Heart Health News

What do you know about the symptoms of Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD)? Well for starters, more than 10 million American have PAD. To learn more, download the latest issue of Heart Health News for the latest cardiovascular news. And if you're interested in receiving your own copy, simply email us your mailing address to: marketing@stormontvail.org.

A Ticking Clock Means A Lot During a Heart Attack

Stormont-Vail HealthCare Emergency and Trauma Center opened is the newest emergency facility in the community and a Level II Trauma Center, it also serves as the entry point for many experiencing the symptoms and effects of acute myocardial infarction–otherwise known as a heart attack.

When it comes to treating heart attacks, interventional cardiologists from Cotton-O'Neil Heart Center are ready in a heartbeat to respond to a patient's acute myocardial infarction. With one of the busiest interventional programs in northeast Kansas, Stormont-Vail HealthCare is at the forefront of taking heart attack treatment to the next level.

On average, the door-to-balloon time in any hospital should be 90 minutes or less. Recent studies prove that reopening clogged arteries, known as balloon angioplasty, can reduce a patient's risk of dying by 40 percent if done within 90 minutes of the patient's arrival in any hospital emergency room. This is known in the medical field as the 'door-to-balloon' time.

The interventional teams of cardiologists and clinicians at the Cotton-O'Neil Heart Center have been working continuously to streamline every aspect of their performance to reduce door-to-balloon times and shorten your heart attack experience. A recent audit of patients transported to the Stormont-Vail ED by AMR shows the team has whittled the intervention time to a very efficient median time of 33-minutes, which is significantly faster than the recommended treatment guidelines and very beneficial to the recovery of the any patient. The fastest response time recorded was 25 minutes.

As someone suddenly finding himself or herself in the midst of a heart attack, you want to be taken to a health care facility that regularly makes every effort to respond quickly and accurately to your personal cardiovascular emergency. You, as a prospective patient, should know that upon your arrival at the new Stormont-Vail Emergency Department, your personal interventional treatment will occur at speeds that rival the best cardiac care facilities in the United States.

To learn more about the interventional cardiologists, talk to your physician or contact the Cotton-O'Neil Heart Center at (785) 270-4000.