“Earning
this
accreditation
acknowledges that we have the
systems in place to ensure that we
do the right thing to take care of the
cardiovascular patient,” says Bao H.
Le, DO, a cardiologist at Scott &
White Hospital - College Station. In
fact, it means that the hospital has
met or exceeded a broad set of criteria
for reducing the time before a patient
experiencing symptoms of a potential
heart attack can see a physician, and
get into the catheterization lab so that a
blocked artery can be opened as quickly
as possible.
“Depending on how the patient
presents, we actually have two methods
in place to assess the presence of a heart
attack, or the risk of one,” Dr. Le says.
When a patient calls 911, Emergency
Medical Services performs an EKG
(electrocardiogram) to determine
whether the patient is having a heart
attack. “In those cases, they call us
and we activate the nursing staff, a
cardiologist, and the whole team,” he
says. “When the patient arrives, we do
an angiogram and the catheterization
lab procedure emergently.”
Dr. Le and his team can also
determine whether a patient is having a
heart attack, thanks to recent advances
in cardiac research. “There are a few
ways we test in order to learn whether
the chest pain is cardiac-related,”
Dr. Le says. “These include lab work
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