Timeliness of interfacility transfer for ED patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction. | Vanderbilt Center for Clinical Cardiovascular Outcomes Research and Trials Evaluation

Ward MJ, Kripalani S, Storrow AB, Liu D, Speroff T, Matheny M, Thomassee EJ, Vogus TJ, Munoz D, Scott C, Fredi JL, Dittus RS. Timeliness of interfacility transfer for ED patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction. The American journal of emergency medicine. 2015 Mar;33(33). 423-9. PMID: 25618768 [PubMed] PMCID: PMC4385487 NIHMSID: NIHMS653612.

Abstract

Most US hospitals lack primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) capabilities to treat patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) necessitating transfer to PCI-capable centers. Transferred patients rarely meet the 120-minute benchmark for timely reperfusion, and referring emergency departments (EDs) are a major source of preventable delays. We sought to use more granular data at transferring EDs to describe the variability in length of stay at referring EDs.