The American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association recommend that patients experiencing a heart attack have their coronary arteries opened within 90 minutes of arrival at the hospital – a period of time commonly referred to as “door-to-balloon.” PinnacleHealth exceeds this standard, treating heart attacks patients within about an hour of their arrival at the hospital. Nationally, only about 35 percent of hospitals are able to meet these standards – which is one more reason why PinnacleHealth is one of the best cardiac care facilities in the nation.

Code STEMI is PinnacleHealth’s heart attack protocol, a system that gets the necessary staff and equipment in place to get heart attack patients the treatment they need in the least amount of time.

Time is of the Essence

When you're having a heart attack, every minute counts. That's why PinnacleHealth initiated the Code STEMI process to help patients experiencing heart attacks to receive treatment in the Cardiac Catheterization Lab as quickly as possible. The Code STEMI protocol activates the staff members involved in evaluating and treating heart attack patients, with the goal of reducing the amount of time it takes to get them from the door of the Harrisburg Campus Emergency Department to the Cardiac Catheterization Lab.

Code STEMI involves the PinnacleHealth Heart and Vascular Institute, Emergency Department, and Department of Nurses. When a patient arrives in the emergency room with symptoms of a heart attack, he or she immediately receives an electrocardiogram to confirm the diagnosis of a heart attack, also known as an ST-elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI).

The Emergency Department immediately activates the Code STEMI, notifying the cardiac catheterization team, the on-call cardiologist and the Cardiac Care Unit to expect a patient and prepare to begin treatment. Patients are then taken to the Cardiac Catheterization Lab, where the team can perform an angioplasty, a procedure in which a balloon-tipped catheter is inserted through an artery in the groin and guided through the artery to the site of the blockage. Once in place, the balloon is inflated to remove the clot causing the heart attack, restoring normal blood flow.

On average, PinnacleHealth patients have a “door-to-balloon” time of approximately 63 minutes, significantly lower than the 90-minute timeframe specified by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association. Research has shown that the sooner the artery is opened, the better the patient's chance of living through his or her heart attack. Code STEMI is just one way PinnacleHealth is reducing the door-to-balloon time to benefit patients.

If you experience heart attack symptoms, call 911 immediately and ask to be taken to PinnacleHealth's Harrisburg Campus.