Contact:
Jason Merrill
314-286-0302
[email protected]

ST. LOUIS - Barnes-Jewish and the Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation were two of several groups honored this afternoon by St. Louis City Fire Department Chief Dennis Jenkerson for helping purchase portable 12-Lead EKG monitors that will be placed on all Advanced Life Support (ALS) Units.

At Barnes-Jewish, about 25 percent of emergency department patients arrive via emergency medical services with the greatest majority coming from the fire department.

"The City Fire Department’s use of these leads helps us save lives and help us prevent any loss of information because we are getting official 12 lead data from the scene," says Darryl Williams, RN, emergency department manager at Barnes-Jewish.

The use of these 12-lead EKG’s in the field when a patient is presenting with chest pain helps the emergency department activate the cath lab team from the field rather when a patient arrives through the door. That can cut down as much as 20 minutes of time until the patient has a cardiac catheterization to resolve artery blockages.

"Such efforts have helped Barnes-Jewish maintain nearly 100% door-to-balloon in time rates and achieve one of the best survival rates for heart attack in the nation according to government data," says Coreen Vlodarchyk, RN, Barnes-Jewish vice president of patient care services.

In a release issued December 3, the St. Louis City Fire Department said:

The addition of this equipment is a critical first step in the implementation of the American Heart Assocation’s Mission: Lifeline program in the city of St. Louis. Through Mission:Lifeline, Ambassador and Mrs. Sam Fox made a generous lead gift to provide training to more than 100 paramedics in the City of St Louis on the 12 lead EKG devices.

These devices will allow paramedics using them the ability to transmit 12-Lead reports and cardiovascular event summaries to Emergency Room cardiologists before the patient reaches the hospital ER, thus enabling the hospital’s staff to prepare for a heart-saving intervention. This new technology will be able to help the hospitals provide expedited treatment for heart attack victims. Early recognition of heart attacks will save precious minutes in the treatment of each heart attack victim.

The equipment was purchased with grants and donations from the St. Louis Fire Department Lifesaving Foundation and from generous community partners: AT&T Foundation, Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation, Emergency Nurses Association, Saint Louis University Hospital, and US Bank.