Licking Memorial Health Systems

:: Chest Pain Accreditation :: VHA Clinical Excellence Award :: Core Measures :: Heart Attack :: Signs and Symptoms of Heart Attack, Stroke and Cardiac Arrest :: Understanding Heart Failure

Why Choose Licking Memorial Hospital for Your Heart Services?

Licking Memorial Hospital (LMH) takes great pride in providing excellent cardiovascular services to the community. Saving time means saving lives; we specialize in providing timely lifesaving techniques and the latest technology for patients with the risk of cardiovascular disease. Our outstanding relationship with the local emergency medical services (EMS) means our patients can expect rapid, exceptional care prior to reaching the Hospital. Our new equipment and software allow medics to deliver an electrocardiogram (EKG) to the Emergency Department (ED) before the patient arrives.

EMS personnel prepare to transmit an EKG to Emergency Department.

EMS personnel reviewing an EKG.

The use of pre-hospital EKGs by the EMS offers great benefits to the patient who is having chest pain. Diagnostic information is sent directly to the physician via a wireless hand-held Blackberry. In addition, LMH administration supports the EMS teams by encouraging department chiefs to request any updates or new equipment needs for consideration. The Hospital recently supported a growing area of our community by providing financial assistance to an EMS team for EKG units that needed to be replaced.

Researchers report that only about one-third of hospitals provide emergency care to patients with heart attacks quickly enough to meet scientific guidelines for saving lives. Even among the metro area hospitals, only a few routinely meet the recommended guidelines set by the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology. Research also shows that most Americans wait two hours or more on a procedure to open the blockage, depriving the heart of precious oxygen. The procedure, balloon angioplasty, can cut a patient’s risk of death by 40 percent, but only if it is done within 90 minutes of the patient’s arrival at the hospital. LMH is proud to report that our patients typically receive angioplasty in an average time of 74 minutes!

LMH staff receiving EKG transmission.

LMH Heart Care team monitors patient in Catheterization Lab.

That is just the beginning of the exceptional service you’ll receive at LMH, close to home, in a comfortable environment. As an accredited chest pain center, LMH is well prepared to evaluate each patient within a private room, minutes of entering the ED with chest pain. The LMH Interventional Cardiology staff is on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Upon receipt of a cardiovascular emergency, our Vocera voice-activated paging system activates the Catheterization Lab team in record time. Once a heart attack has been diagnosed, our team implements specialized practices that save time, lives, and heart muscle.

Diagnostic Cardiac Services

The Licking Memorial Cardiovascular team provides a full spectrum of diagnostic services from a simple EKG to more advanced services such as Cardiac Catheterization and Transesophageal Echo (TEE). All of the tests are performed by experienced cardiac nurses and cardiologists in a serene environment. The LMH Cardiac Imaging Lab is nationally accredited by the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Echocardiography Laboratories in echocardiography and adult stress echocardiography.

The Cardiology Department is located on the first floor of the Hospital for easy access, and is open from 7:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Additionally, our staff is on-call during weekends and holidays to help evaluate patients with chest pain that may require prompt cardiac testing. Cardiac services provided at LMH include:

Multievent recorder
Cardiac stress testing
Dobutamine MUGA
Nuclear cardiac stress testing - pharmacologic and exercise
Echocardiogram
Tilt table testing
TEE
Cardioversion
Cardiac catheterization
2D echo with PW/CW Doppler and Color Doppler
Cardiac rehabilitation

Patient receiving Echocardiogram.

Interventional Cardiac Services

LMH is committed to providing less-invasive treatment options for our patients with cardiovascular disease. With the addition of these services, we now offer our patients additional options that decrease the need to travel outside the area for diagnosis and treatment. We offer a wide range of interventions such as coronary angioplasty and stenting including the use of drug-eluting stents. We provide positive outcomes and excellent care for patients who make the decision to receive high quality heart care at LMH. (Click here to view our 2009 community report card on heart care services.)

As of October 2008, Licking Memorial has performed more than 400 cardiac catheterizations. The interventional cardiology staff are improving and saving the lives of cardiac patients by performing coronary angioplasty on those patients that need intervention. This procedure can decrease symptoms of coronary artery disease, a condition caused by plaque build up in the walls of coronary arteries. With all the improvements in cardiac catheterization, many patients formerly requiring bypass surgery can now be treated in our Catheterization Lab. Shorter hospital stays and recovery time are just two of the advantages our patients enjoy. Our full range of treatment services include:

Coronary angiography
Coronary intervention
Stenting
Thrombolysis
Biventricular pacing for heart failure
Implantable Defibrillators
Pacemakers

Emergency Medical Services (EMS)

The majority of our ED patients, who arrive via squad, are transported from a range of EMS departments throughout the county. Each department is experienced, knowledgeable and eager to provide the very best care to the Licking County area. LMH has built solid relationships with these departments and continuously work with them to ensure high quality and efficient patient care.