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During this transition year, the Heart Attack Initiative will focus on the following goals:
  • Implementing provincial treatment and transfer guidelines that will provide physicians and sub-urban/rural healthcare providers with direct access to cardiology consultation.  This will help promote prompt transfer of patients from rural areas to urban centres where they can quickly get the care they need.
  • Supporting sites in identifying future needs and integrating the new protocols into ongoing operations.
  • Developing provincial guidelines for implementing a Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) model for STEMI.
  • Optimizing and integrating STEMI data collection through  a centralized database.
By focusing on these goals, the objective is to:
  • Initiate standardized care for all STEMI patients.
  • Provide all Albertans equal access to evidenced based care.
  • Ensure sub-urban/rural physicians and healthcare providers have easy access to cardiology consultation.
  • Provide uniform STEMI transfer guidelines throughout the province.
  • Improve access to tertiary care, especially for high risk patients.
  • Partner with EMS to define their role in STEMI care.
  • Develop a sustainable plan for integrating new care pathways into standard of care practice.
  • Ensure the large Regional Centres are optimizing STEMI care.
  • Standardize definitions of data collection for quality review.
Challenges
  • Fewer than one in four Albertans in rural areas access the healthcare system by calling an ambulance - and in some areas the number is more like one in ten!  This can slow time to treatment for a person having a heart attack.  A program has been launched to increase public awareness of the importance of calling an ambulance if you think you might be having a heart attack.
  • The ability to transmit ECGs via fax or on-line as transmission signals vary in quality in some places.  However, the Alberta Cardiac Access Collaborative has funded new technology that increases the ECG transmission success rates by 20 percent.

 





@ 2008, Alberta Cardiac Access Collaborative (ACAC), All Rights Reserved.