Diverting ambulances with patients suffering a heart to a hospital providing emergency angioplasty rather than a closer hospital with no ability to provide this specialized care, may be feasible for the majority of Americans, researchers at Yale School of Medicine and the University of Michigan report in Circulation.
The study, presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology, shows that about 80 percent of Americans live within an hour of a hospital that offers emergency angioplasty, which is considered the best treatment for patients with ST-elevation acute myocardial infarction (STEMI). According to the authors, patients with STEMI could be treated more like trauma patients, with ambulances taking certain patients to specialized hospitals that perform emergency heart procedures, rather then transporting them to the nearest hospital.
Only a small percentage of American hospitals perform angioplasties, which re-opens blood vessels and can be done electively to prevent a heart attack or urgently to treat one. The authors say the number of hospitals performing this care is rising and the majority of heart patients do not have geographic limitations. The team found that the median driving time to an angioplasty hospital was about 11.3 minutes, or 7.9 miles. The team made their findings by combining and analyzing data from the 2000 U.S. Census, the American Hospital Association's database of hospital locations, driving distances and estimated driving times.