Award winning heart attack care

Sixty-two minutes. That's the average time it takes our heart attack team to unblock the artery of a patient having a heart attack. Around the country, hospitals of similar size perform the same "door to open vessel" procedures in 89 minutes.

Park Nicollet Heart and Vascular Center’s response time saves lives and reduces heart damage. It also earned recognition from the American Medical Group Association and the Premier group purchasing organization for excellence in improving health care quality.

Aggressively treating heart attacks

Our aggressive approach starts the minute a patient arrives at the hospital. Our team immediately transports patients from Methodist Hospital's Emergency Center to the heart catheterization ("cath") laboratory, where heart professionals begin techniques such as balloon angioplasty and stenting to open the vessel quickly and safely.

In addition, our team has increased the survival rate of heart attack patients coming to Methodist Hospital to 93 percent.  Our approach to treating heart attacks doesn't stop at the hospital. Staff at Park Nicollet Heart and Vascular Center ensures patients receive education about lifestyle changes and are given lifesaving drugs proven to reduce future heart attacks.

Methodist Hospital's rates for administering these crucial treatments are far above the national average for similar hospitals. Recently, Methodist was recognized for these efforts and received the Q Award by Premier, a buying group that compared data among 400 hospitals.

The under-use of medications, such as beta blockers, ACE inhibitors and statins has been targeted for nationwide improvement by the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiologists. The use of these medications has been strongly tied to better outcomes following hospitalization. Information on these outcomes is available through the heart center's Acute Myocardial Infarction Care Improvement Initiative registry and the National Registry of Myocardial Infarction that tracks heart attack treatment efforts at more than 1,000 hospitals across the country.