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For emergency treatment of heart attacks, The George Washington University Hospital outperforms national benchmarks in delivering fast, advanced care.* 

The most serious kind of heart attack — known as a STEMI (ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction) — occurs when the blood flow through a coronary artery is completely blocked. GW Hospital is one of only three hospitals in Washington, DC, designated for EMS transport of patients with a STEMI heart attack. Timely treatment is essential and often involves a non-surgical catheterization procedure to open the blockage.

A key quality measure in the delivery of care is “door-to-balloon time.” This is the time it takes for a cardiac patient to proceed from the hospital entrance to a catheterization procedure. “In GW Hospital’s latest acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) data from the National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR®), the hospital again exceeded the national benchmarks in every category, including door-to-balloon time,” notes Jonathan S. Reiner, MD, Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at GW Hospital and Professor of Medicine at the GW University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. 

For patients requiring a catheterization procedure, the GW Hospital Cardiovascular Center offers transradial cardiac catheterization, which enables doctors to perform catheterization through a tiny puncture in the radial artery of the wrist. This advanced method has been shown to offer advantages, such as reduced bleeding. GW Hospital performs almost 80% of its percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures this way, compared to a recently reported U.S. average of around 27%.**  

What’s New In Heart Care?

GW Hospital now offers The WATCHMAN™ atrial appendage system, which can offer select patients a safe and effective alternative to long-term oral anticoagulants. Also new is the Absorb® coronary stent, the first FDA-approved stent of its kind to be absorbed by the body after it has done its job. 

Learn more about cardiovascular services at GW Hospital

*National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR®)

**Diagnostic and Interventional Cardiology (DAIC), May 27, 2016