March 10, 2011 – Five Methodist Healthcare facilities in San Antonio, Texas, are now using a chest pain management solution to make pre-hospital and emergent electrocardiographs (ECGs) immediately available to cardiologists. The HealthView Chest Pain Management system, from Lumedx, also allows cardiologists to interpret, review and immediately compare them with previous ECGs.
By integrating current and historical clinical information from disparate systems into a single view available anywhere with an Internet connection, the system bridges emergency and cardiac medicine. It will be deployed at San Antonio Methodist hospitals to more closely connect emergency medical services (EMS), emergency departments (EDs) and cardiovascular service lines. This will help accelerate appropriate diagnoses and improve patient care. Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle is currently using the same system.
“This technology will take us to a new level of cardiac care,” said Jaime Wesolowski, president and CEO, Methodist Healthcare. “Methodist Healthcare hospitals see the majority of cardiac patients in the region and these patients will be the beneficiaries of this new technology.”
The five Methodist facilities implementing HealthView are:
• Methodist Heart Hospital
• Methodist Children’s Hospital
• Methodist Metropolitan
• Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital
• Methodist Stone Oak Hospital
Based on American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association acute coronary syndrome (ACS) management guidelines, the system enables systematic, organized clinical pathways for ST-elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI), or non-STEMI (NSTEMI) and low-risk chest pain patients. The institution of systematic clinical pathways resolves key problems in the coordination and delivery of care in this high-volume, high-risk area of medicine.
The system integrates pre-hospital and historical ECGs and clinical data from disparate systems into a single dashboard view, which is accessible anytime, anywhere. It connects the ED to the cardiovascular service line for improved care for emergent cases and facilitates timely, fully informed decision-making. This helps reduce door-to-balloon times and length of stay. It also supports registry participation through easy documentation of key care points without onerous data abstraction.
For more information: www.lumedx.com