Florida Hospital Flagler. At the heart of the community.
In a cardiac emergency, every second counts. With five locations throughout Volusia and Flagler, Florida Hospital offers the area’s most comprehensive network of Cardiac Care – with Chest Pain Centers, diagnostic and interventional catheterization care and open-heart surgery all within our system. And best of all, every visit to Florida Hospital comes with the kind of compassionate, caring attention you’ve come to expect from our hospitals.
In fact, the time it takes for a heart attack patient to have a heart blocked eased has gotten even faster in Flagler County. Florida Hospital Flagler recently outfitted all of the Flagler County EMS ambulances and a helicopter with wireless technology that will allow a picture of the heart's functioning to be transmitted directly to the hospital's emergency room and, from there, to a cardiologist's cell phone or PDA. Now that it is in place, it speeds up the time it takes to diagnose patients and activate the Emergency Department team to treat them for what is the bigest killer in the United States.
When the patient is experiencing a heart attack - and one of the arteries that feeds the heart is blocked - the heart muscle is deprived of the oxygen that keeps it functioning. So every minute the heart muscle is deprived of blood could be killing its ability to pump. Given the new ability to transmit electrocardiogram (EKG) readings from the ambulance to the emergency room could save at least 12 minutes that it would take for the ER staff to do another EKG once the patient arrives at the hospital.
Once patients arrive at Florida Hospital Flagler's Emergency Department, they can rest easier, knowing that the hospital is equipped with the technology to promptly diagnose the arriving patient and deliver more precise information than ever before.
Cardiac monitoring in the main Emergency Department is able to provide immediate electrocardiograms. Cardiac tests can be performed at the bedside, instead of transporting the samples to the lab, for quicker results, while a computerized medication-dispensing machine ensures that the right patient is provided with the appropriate medication.
While technology is critical, the expertise of medical personnel is just as important. Our licensed nursing staff is required to have current certification in Basic Life Support (BLS), Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS), and Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), as well as education and training on equipment and procedures utilized in the Emergency Department.
In addition, Florida Hospital Flagler has received Chest Pain Accreditation from the prestigious Society of Chest Pain Centers (SCPC), a non-profit international society dedicated to the belief that heart disease can be eliminated as the number one cause of death worldwide. Hospitals such as Florida Hospital Flagler who are Chest Pain Accredited by SCPC notice improved quality outcomes and streamlined processes that enhance the quality of cardiac care while reducing waste. Obtaining Chest Pain Accreditation also demonstrates to the community Florida Hospital Flagler’s commitment and dedication to providing exceptional cardiac care.
Saving Hearts in Flagler County
Florida Hospital Flagler has begun construction of a second Cardiac Catherization Lab, as well as an upgrade to the existing Lab, for a combined cost of $3.5 million. (To view photos of the construction as it progresses, please visit our Facebook page or click here.)
This new Cardiac Catherization Lab is an investment in Flagler County and will put the community one-step closer to an interventional Catheterization Lab, which will offer life-saving procedures with the potential to eliminate the need for more extreme measures, such as open heart surgery.
The expanded capabilities of Florida Hospital Flagler’s new Catheterization Lab will include Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI), which is a type of treatment for patients experiencing inadequate blood flow to the heart or a heart attack. Primary PCI is an emergency treatment performed to reduce the amount of heart muscle permanently damaged by a heart attack and it reduces the death rate from heart attack.
To read more about this special project, please click here.
To learn how you can help Save Hearts in Flagler County, please call the Florida Hospital Flagler Foundation today at (386) 586-4216.