Emergency department activation of an interventional cardiology team reduces door-to-balloon times in ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction.

Study Objective: American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology guidelines recommend door-to-balloon times of fewer than 90 minutes in patients with acute ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction. We hypothesized that immediate activation of an interventional cardiology team (code H) would reduce the time to percutaneous coronary intervention by 1 hour and increase the proportion of patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention within 90 minutes of arrival.

Methods: Study design was a before-and-after trial in an academic suburban emergency department (ED) with a certified cardiac catheterization laboratory.

Telemetry monitoring during transport of low-risk chest pain patients from the emergency department: is it necessary?

Background: Low-risk emergency department (ED) patients with chest pain (CP) are often transported by nurses to monitored beds on telemetry monitoring, diverting valuable resources from the ED and delaying transport.

Objectives: To test the hypothesis that transporting low-risk CP patients off telemetry monitoring is safe.

Methods: This was a secondary analysis of a prospective, observational cohort of ED patients with low-risk chest pain (no active chest pain, normal or nondiagnostic electrocardiogram, normal initial troponin I) admitted to a non-intensive care unit monitored bed who were transported off telemetry monitor by nonclinical personnel.