When seconds count: HealthONE’s Cardiac Alert system saves lives

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From left, Englewood paramedic/firefighter Greg Weaver, Swedish Medical Center cath lab technician Marlene Truesdale (who is studying to become an RN) and cardiologist Dr. Ira Dauber of South Denver Cardiology Associates care for “patient” Venita Robinson during the taping of a commercial for HealthONE’s Cardiac Alert program.

by Joelle Moran
Staff Writer

When a patient has a heart attack, every second counts. That’s why HealthONE hospitals implemented Cardiac Alert, a program that reduces the time from a heart attack patient’s arrival in an emergency room to the angioplasty procedure that opens blocked arteries and restores blood to the heart, ultimately saving the heart muscle from further damage.

RN Paula Grassmick, director of the Progressive Care Unit and the  cardiac service line at Denver’s Swedish Medical Center, said the program has changed the way nurses in the ER and cath labs do their work.

According to Grassmick, it places an increased awareness on timelines and the collaboration between departments to treat heart attack patients much quicker.

“It makes a huge difference in the saving of the heart muscle,” Grassmick said. “Time is muscle.”

Swedish implemented Cardiac Alert in 2002, when it took an average of 145 minutes to get a heart attack patient from the ER to the cath lab with a balloon inflated to open the blocked artery.

Today, using Cardiac Alert’s coordinated system of care, the average is 56 minutes, Grassmick said.

“It’s improved it by two-thirds, which is saving heart muscle, which we believe saves lives,” she said.

HealthONE recently produced a commercial to educate the community about Cardiac Alert and the warning signs of a heart attack.

It features cardiologist Dr. Ira Dauber of South Denver Cardiology Associates; Marlene Truesdale, a cath lab technician in The Heart Center at Swedish Medical Center; Greg Weaver, an Englewood paramedic/firefighter; and “patient” Venita Robinson.

The Cardiac Alert protocol begins with EMS workers who are trained to perform an electrocardiogram upon first contact with the patient, interpreting the EKG before moving the patient.

If a heart attack is confirmed, EMS calls a “cardiac alert” to activate the catheter lab, emergency room and cardiologist at the hospital. This mobilization puts key personnel in place before the patient arrives at the hospital.


Swedish implemented Cardiac Alert in 2002, when it took an average of 145 minutes to get a heart attack patient from the ER to the cath lab with a balloon inflated to open the blocked artery. Today, using Cardiac Alert’s coordinated system of care, the average is 56 minutes, Grassmick said.


At Swedish, Cardiac Alert prompted changes within the hospital, such as moving nurses and equipment from the cardiac testing area into the ER, allowing the patient to be moved more efficiently from one department to the other, Grassmick said.

A key component of the program is to create a seamless transition for patients by expanding training so hospital personnel understand one another’s jobs and how they work together, she added.

A 2006 study in the New England Journal of Medicine looked at which of the 28 national guidelines from the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology were used by hospitals nationwide to reduce door-to-balloon time in heart attack patients.

The study found that these lifesaving strategies should be completed in 90 minutes or less. At the time of the study only one-third of hospitals nationwide followed the guidelines.

HealthONE’s Cardiac Alert program uses many of these guidelines, which have drastically reduced door-to-balloon times.

Cardiac Alert was developed in 2000 by The Medical Center of Aurora, the Aurora Fire Department and Rural Metro Ambulance. The program was eventually implemented at all HealthONE hospitals in the metro Denver area.

At Swedish, Grassmick said other programs have spun off Cardiac Alert to improve other cardiac services.

For example, Swedish developed a Chest Pain Program, which shortened the time from diagnosis to discharge to six hours from 24 to 36 hours.

“For a person that comes in with chest pain, that is one less day of missed work and an unnecessary hospital stay,” Grassmick said.