Heart Alert at Baptist Health System
A groundbreaking program, in place at each of the Baptist Health System hospitals, is saving precious time in diagnosing and treating patients suffering a heart attack. Baptist Health System is the first and only system in San Antonio to implement “Heart Alert,” a program that in most cases gets heart attack patients into the cath lab for life-saving treatment in under an hour… well under the national standard of 90-minutes.
“The process can best be compared to a “NASCAR” style response to treating heart attacks,” said Bill Waechter, who helped implement Heart Alert at Baptist Health System. “Like a well-trained pit crew, the Heart Alert process is a focused collaboration which creates a safe, fast and efficient, but not rushed, method of getting a patient to the hospital and receiving interventional treatment. It’s the integration of care between EMS and hospital emergency and cath lab departments that makes this work.”
The Heart Alert program is part of Baptist Health System’s Chest Pain Center Accreditation. Baptist was the first health system in San Antonio to offer accredited chest pain centers. Each of the 5 Baptist Hospitals is an Accredited Chest Pain Center.