Traditionally, paramedics perform an EKG in the field if they suspect a patient is having a heart attack but do not transmit the tracing to the emergency room. Instead, patients are triaged and evaluated in the ED, and only then is the cath lab team called in to the hospital which in many cases can mean more than an hour’s time.
With the new technology provided, now an emergency room physician at Baptist Beaumont Hospital can review the EKG sent by an ambulance in the field, and, if the patient is having a heart attack, assembles the cardiac catheterization team even before the ambulance arrives at the hospital. The patient is immediately transported to the cardiovascular cath lab, where an interventional cardiologist opens the blocked coronary artery, restoring blood flow to the heart.
Baptist Beaumont Hospital is proud to announce the introduction of the Medivance’s cooling technology – hailed as a medical breakthrough by the Wall Street Journal’s Technology Innovation Awards and the Frost & Sullivan Product Differentiation Innovation Award for Advancing the European Therapeutic Hypothermia Devices Market. Arctic Sun therapeutic temperature management device being initiated at Baptist Beaumont Hospital, the only one in Southeast Texas, is a precise non-invasive patient cooling device and is used at more than 70 percent of the nation’s top hospitals, and 80 percent of the top heart programs. Per AHA guidelines, cooling is a standard of care post-cardiac arrest. It is among the newest, most promising treatment available. With recognition by the Society of Chest Pain Centers as the 365th accredited Chest Pain Center in the nation along with the Arctic Sun management device, we are assuring the best cardiac care in Southeast Texas.
Non-invasive cooling with the Arctic Sun is not only fast and efficient in reducing core body temperature, but safe – it does not subject patients to the unnecessary risk of Deep Vein Thrombosis, infection or bleeding prevalent with catheter-based cooling technologies in use at some other hospitals. Typically, critically ill patients who fit the criteria are cooled for 24 hours.