Quick change: ER physician Jason Biggs, M.D., and Dr. Chan discuss a patient he is treating in the ER and who is about to be admitted. St. Clair Hospital’s nationally recognized ER is staffed 24/7 by board-certified physicians.
Cardiology conference: Cardiologist John Girod, D.O., who practices with South Hills Cardiology Associates, part of St. Clair Medical Services, confers with Dr. Chan about a 90-year-old female patient who was transported to the ER after suffering a heart attack and was about to undergo a cardiac catheterization.
Cardiac catheterization team: Left to right, Leah Pence, R.N., and Cardiovascular Technologists Nicole Antle and Rachel Zeh arrive in the ER to prepare a patient for a catheterization in the nearby Cath Lab, just after midnight.
Continued from page 5
A CALL TO THE ER
There, Dr. Chan consults Micromedex, one
door-to-balloon team — interventional cardiol-
Dr. Chan also serves as the Hospital’s admitting
of the many medical knowledge databases the
ogists who respond to heart-related emergencies
physician throughout the evening/night, which
Hospital provides to augment physicians’ practice,
throughout the night. Door-to-balloon refers to
means frequent trips to the Emergency Room to
to determine the toxicology of the medication he
the time between when a suspected heart attack
consult with ER physicians. Together, they will
had ingested in large quantities.
victim arrives in the ER and when a tiny balloon
decide which tests to run before patients are assigned to a unit in the Hospital.
Around midnight, Dr. Chan is back in the ER,
is inflated in his or her heart artery to clear
conferring with Cardiologist John Girod, D.O.,
blockages that led to the attack. Studies have
One of her trips to the ER this evening is to
who was called in from home to perform a heart
shown that shorter door-to-balloon time leads
examine a 39-year-old patient who attempted
catheterization on a 90-year-old female patient
to a better recovery. St. Clair cardiologists have
suicide. Intubated to maintain an open airway,
who had suffered a heart attack and was rushed
long had some of the best door-to-balloon times
he is later transported to the ICU.
to St. Clair. Dr. Girod is a member of St. Clair’s
in the country.
6 I HouseCall I Volume VI Issue 2