Holding Back the Hands of Time
For Steve Palmer, R.N., a passion for saving precious minutes saves lives
Time and money-saver
For as passionate as Steve Palmer, R.N., is about saving time in the way we care for heart-attack patients, he’s equally passionate about saving money. His cost-saving ideas, like recycling the unused portion of an expensive medication used in the cardiac catheterization lab, saved us more than $100,000.
Quittin’ time was the end of just another workday for Steve Palmer. In his prior job, he received no personal reward from selling business forms to clients. Deep down inside, he needed something more from his career. “I’ve always had a desire to help people,” he says. So at age 30, he left his sales route behind to follow in the footsteps of a family member. He returned to school and became a nurse.
After gaining experience in our emergency department and cardiac catheterization lab, Palmer is currently the coordinator of our fast-action heart-attack program, MI Alert for Heart Attacks. In this role, he coordinates a team of people who find ways to open patients’ blocked heart arteries even faster than we’re doing now. The sooner an artery is opened, the less damage the heart suffers during an attack.
On average, the time it takes from when a patient comes through our door until his or her blocked arteries are opened is 66 minutes. That’s much better than the “gold standard” for heart-attack care (90 minutes). In fact, nearly half of our patients received lifesaving care in less than 60 minutes, and nearly 30 percent of them had their arteries opened in less than 30 minutes.
“Our team created a process in which no time is wasted,” Palmer says. “We’ve also developed an excellent partnership with the EMS community.” Our leadership in fast heart-attack care, coupled with the many other superior heart-care services we provide, is why we’re recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” for heart care and surgery in 2008. (We also made the list for gastrointestinal disorders and geriatric care.)
For Palmer, the recognition doesn’t mean we can rest on our laurels. He wants to shave more minutes off our average time and help more people through our partnership with hospitals in outlying communities. “We can do it by continuing to educate local paramedics, EMTs and emergency caregivers in partnering hospitals about how MI Alert works,” Palmer says.
Now when Palmer’s day is done, he feels a sense of accomplishment. He knows the work of the MI Alert team saves lives. “Patients come here, some near death, and leave a few days later as if nothing happened,” Palmer says. “It’s exciting to know the team’s work has immediate results on people’s lives.”
—Rick Martuscelli
This page last updated 8/25/08 08:32 PM
