The Bee Cave Bee

LRMC has recently beaten several records in its treatment of heart attack victims:

On June 10th, Lakeway Regional Medical Center set a new personal record for fast response heart attack care with initial first medical contact-to-balloon time of 37 minutes and a door-to-balloon time of just 20 minutes. Door-to-balloon time is the time between the patient’s arrival in the emergency department and the opening of the blocked artery following a heart attack, whereas first medical contact-to-balloon is when EMS arrives at the scene where the patient is located to when the artery is opened in the hospital, a much harder goal to achieve. The national goal for the first medical contact is 90 minutes and the door-to-balloon national goal is 60 minutes.

On June 11th, there was another STEMI (STEMI is an acronym meaning "ST segment elevation myocardial infarction," which is a type of heart attack.) patient tying with the previous day's initial first medical contact-to-balloon time of 37 minutes and a door-to-balloon time of 17 minutes! That beat the door-to-balloon time of the previous one and has set the record for LRMC.

The cooperative efforts of LRMC’s emergency department, cardiac catheterization lab, the Code STEMI team, cardiologist Samuel DeMaio, MD, an independently practicing cardiologist on the LRMC medical staff, and cardiologist Sachin Mehta, MD, also on the LRMC medical staff, helped make the record-breaking times. Dr. DeMaio stated that “Having a medical staff and cath lab with so much experience and background, really gives us the advantage to routinely exceed the national average. Every minute counts and we try to save as much heart muscle as possible.”

“To put a few things into perspective, only 11% of STEMIs achieve door-to-balloon times of less than 30 minutes nationally,” says Curtis Townsend, director of Emergency Services at LRMC. “Dr. Samuel DeMaio was on call for the previous 3 STEMIs here and all three cases have exceeded national guidelines and were all achieved in less than 30 minutes. Dr. Mehta was on call for the last STEMI and that was the one setting LRMC’s record thus far. To exceed exemplary goals in all four cases speaks a lot for the type of care we provide.”

The Starflight team that brought in the patient on the 10th was extremely impressed by what LRMC accomplished. This is an amazing achievement with incredible coordination that has truly set the bar for amazing metrics that no one in the city can match. LRMC has high standards of performance in quick, safe and appropriate treatment of STEMI patients. LRMC’s Chief of Staff, Dr. Randy Eckert, stated, “I’m extremely proud of our staff, especially those involved in these particular cases. The quality of care was extraordinary and we are grateful that we can provide exceptional care to the surrounding community.”