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MURRAY — Morgan Daines was riding his bike with friends eight years ago and he had some pain that concerned him due to his family history of heart attacks. Since he was without cell service, he drove to Park City and sought medical attention.
"The doctor looked at me and his eyes got really big and before I knew it, I was on Life Flight coming here (to Intermountain Medical Center). It happened really quick," Daines said.
He thanked doctors and other teams at the trauma hospital for great care, and said he continues to see a cardiologist every year to keep him cycling.
Daines was one of many gathered on Wednesday to celebrate the hospital's rating as the best in the nation for heart attack survival of hospitalized patients. Its 30-day survival rate is matched only by the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Rochester, Minn., and NYU Langone Hospitals in New York City.
"I can't express my appreciation enough for all that was done to save my life and the teams and processes at Intermountain that were in place to treat me," he said.
The rating was recently released by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which ranks hospitals by death rates among heart-attack patients. Intermountain Medical Center is one of three hospitals with a rate of 8.9; the next three hospitals on the list are all located in large population centers and rank 9.2.
A collaborative program
Dr. Kent Meredith, an interventional cardiologist at Intermountain Medical Center, emphasized that for many heart attack patients, opening arteries as soon as possible makes a big difference, and there are a lot of people involved in helping that to happen.
He said the success of the Intermountain Medical Center isn't just benefiting those who live closest to the hospital, but people within about a 30-mile radius of the hospital who can be brought to the hospital's unique catheter lab about as quickly as someone is brought from their own emergency room.
As the program was developing after the hospital opened 16 years ago, Meredith said he was asked to find ways to transport patients from the south side of Salt Lake County and nearby areas in other counties like Park City to the main hospital more quickly.
He said it is a "tremendous team effort." As the program has developed, he said they realized many different jobs played a role in treating heart attacks, beginning with emergency medical service agencies, hospital operators, housekeepers, medical helicopter organizations and so on.
"It's been really rewarding to see how, just like in a sophisticated machine, every one of these participants in this project (has) been extremely valuable," Meredith said.
Jake Christensen, a paramedic with the Murray Fire Department, said paramedics start gathering data quickly when working with a heart patient and are able to use an electrocardiogram to capture data about heart activity from the time they paramedics get to the patient, until the patient is in the hospital.
He said with suspected cardiology patients, paramedics communicate with the hospital to ensure the patient arrives at the hospital with needed information, like what medications they are taking.
Saving lives
Meredith said heart attack care has come a long way — just 50 years ago the best medical care was letting someone rest without stimulation for several weeks in a hospital. With the ability to reopen a blocked artery, heart attack survival rates went up significantly, and research is still accelerating.
"We have come so far in terms of what we can do to treat heart attacks," he said.
He said medical personnel will have to continue to work together to increase the survival rate to 100%.
Dr. Trey O'Neal, chief of the Division of Cardiology at Intermountain Medical Center, said they are very proud of their program, 10 years in the making, that cares for patients in a "much more comprehensive manner" than typical hospitals around the country. He said their model shows not just improved survival, but monetary savings as well.
Early symptom recognition by patients can save lives, he said, adding that patients should pay attention to common symptoms like sudden chest pain, shortness of breath, severe heartburn, radiating jaw pain and arm numbness.
"You won't die of embarrassment if nothing is wrong, but you most certainly can die of a heart attack," he said, encouraging people to come to the emergency room instead of sitting and wondering if there is a problem.
O'Neal said the success of the program is due to putting quality of care above other metrics.
"Congratulations to all of you that give your lives for the lives of our patients. Your sleepless nights, your tireless hours, your daily dedication ... you truly are part of something very, very special," he told the medical staff gathered for the celebration.
O'Neal said he feels lucky, and feels like he has the best job in the world — but his ability to save others would not be possible without all of the teams involved.
"There is no greater gift, I realized this morning, than saving the life of another human being," he said.
