Sixteen Beijing hospitals Thursday joined the "door-to-balloon"
program to try to save more patients suffering from heart
attacks.
The list included major hospitals specializing in heart disease,
said Hu Dayi, director of heart disease section of Peking
University People's Hospital, one of the participants, on
Thursday.
The program, nicknamed "D2B" established by the American College
of Cardiology and the American Heart Association, sets a 90-minute
door-to-balloon time as the quality of care benchmark for acute
myocardial infarction patients.
"Door to balloon" refers to the interval from a patient's
arrival at hospital to inflation of the balloon catheter within the
blocked artery, a standard treatment for the condition.
"Time is life. The sooner doctors reach myocardial infarction
patients, the better chance of saving them," Hu said.
The program recommended practices to avoid delays, such as
having the emergency department physician activate the cath-lab
team by making one call to an operator who then calls all doctors
in the team rather than finding a list and calling them one by
one.
The program offered a platform to share information and
experience with other hospitals, including 900 in the United
States, Hu said.
"We hope that with these efforts Chinese patients can benefit
from the latest international research achievements," he said.
About 2.6 million Chinese die of myocardial infarction and
stokes every year.
(Xinhua News Agency October 12, 2007)