NCRHA goes high tech

Newly acquired technology at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) in Mt Hope, will allow doctors to diagnose heart patients quicker and more accurately, thereby reducing congestion and allowing better critical care for adult emergency patients.

The High Sensitivity Troponin machine will reduce congestion by delivering results ten times faster, reduce demand for beds and stay overs and facilitate better patient/doctor interactions.

In a statement, Dr Ravi Lalla, head of the Accident & Emergency Department at the EWMSC, said by rapidly confirming cardiac cases, doctors are now better positioned to interact with patients to determine the critical actions needed to treat them at the emergency room (ER) with better outcomes and reduced congestion.

He said the hospital already reduced congestion in the ER by 57 per cent last year and the new machine would further decrease congestion by cutting more than ten hours off cardiac diagnosis for emergency patients.

“This creates an opportunity to significantly reduce congestion in the ER, as up to 40 per cent of serious cases coming to the ER are heart-related. The patient experience is further improved as we will be able to narrow down their ailment and thus shorten the time they are in pain, and their stay in the hospital. If the test is positive for myocardial infarction (MI), they are immediately treated, instead of waiting the additional 12 hours for older tests to confirm heart problems,” Lalla said.

He said before this, patients would have to spend more than 12 hours under observation in the ER to undergo tests to conclusively determine the cause of their chest pain.

“We have already started to use the new equipment to test troponin levels in patients with unexplained chest pains, and the impact on the patient experience has been extremely positive.

We now have the technology to make early decisions based on the results, to apply the right medications and treatments to patients fast enough to save lives and reduce congestion,” he said.

Lalla said chest congestion was one of the most common diagnoses seen in the emergency room, and having a more sensitive test to identify or exclude acute MI, or heart attacks, was a big step towards clearing emergency-room congestion.