BATON ROUGE - Teams from the Baton Rouge General (BRG) and East Baton Rouge Emergency Medical Services (EMS) simulated real-world heart attack scenarios to further advance the organizations’ collaborative training efforts.

They taught side by side on how to start care before a heart attack patient arrives at the hospital. The group experienced what happens from arrival on scene to entering the emergency room, including the handoff and communication between team members. 

“A heart attack is a very time sensitive event. Oftentimes, those critical first 30 to 60 minutes are the most crucial. If a patient can get urgent care in that setting, it can make a difference in longevity and living," said Dr. Lance Lamont with Baton Rouge General.

The event allowed the staff to walk in each role to better understand the responsibilities of the rest of the care team in heart attack cases. For patients suffering a heart attack, treatment should be administered within 90 minutes for the best chance of survival, as permanent damage can begin within 30 minutes of a heart blockage.

"Mere minutes can make a difference in patients' lives," said Dan Godbee with EMS. “A good example is a heart attack where every minute can be that much more heart that is being damaged. So shaving minutes of time off of that is a huge issue to save a lot of people from having more damage than they should have."

With this training, Baton Rouge General's intervention times exceed the national standard. Once the patient arrives, they are taken straight to the cath lab for treatment, saving valuable minutes to life-saving care. Baton Rouge General began using this approach in 2019.

"If someone is having a heart attack, we don't wait for them to get to the door here," Lamont said.