Dubliners who experience a heart attack will no longer have to leave the community to get the care they need.
OhioHealth Dublin Methodist Hospital announced today the opening of a Level II Cardiac Catheterization Lab. The Level II designation allows physicians at Dublin Methodist to not only diagnose but treat heart attacks. The ability to use angioplasty and other interventions to restore blood flow to the heart improves patient outcomes and saves lives.
“For people having a heart attack, time is muscle, and the sooner you treat, the better your chances are,” Armin Rahmanian, President of OhioHealth Dublin Methodist and OhioHealth Grady Memorial Hospital says. “Having these capabilities is so important to the community, and to us at OhioHealth. It’s game-changing, and it’s life-changing, to allow someone’s heart to continue beating.”
Dublin Methodist previously was designated as a Level I Cath Lab, where blockages could be identified, and heart attacks diagnosed. When treating heart attacks, “the next, and most important step, is what to do about it, and we’re able to take that step now,” Rahmanian says.
The Cath Lab, which opened Oct. 11, is staffed by three interventional cardiologists. The specialists use procedures such as balloon angioplasty and stent placement to open blocked arteries and keep them open. They also utilize lithotripsy, which uses ultrasound waves to break up areas of calcification in the arteries. In addition, nurses, radiologic technologists and non-interventional cardiologists make up the team.
Prior to having the Level II Cath Lab in Dublin, emergency squads took patients with suspected heart attacks directly to OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital or transported them there after they were seen initially at Dublin Methodist.
“This new service will allow much quicker management of these patients. The quicker these procedures are done, the more heart muscle is saved,” says Douglas Van Fossen, MD, an interventional cardiologist and director of the new Cath Lab. “We need these services in proximity to where these events occur, and we need to provide services where patients are.”
The Dublin Methodist Cath Lab team has worked closely with local Emergency Medical Service providers to coordinate a seamless protocol for heart attack patients.
Having greater access to advanced heart intervention is important for busy, community-based EMS providers, says David Boehmer, DO, medical director of the Emergency Department at Dublin Methodist Hospital.
“EMS crews no longer have to drive past Dublin Methodist and leave the community to find appropriate care for a patient having a heart event,” says Boehmer. “That not only improves outcomes for that heart patient, it also gets the EMS crew back in service faster which may benefit the next patient in crisis.”
