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Beaumont Grosse Pointe Gets State OK For Emergency Heart Attack Treatment

GROSSE POINTE -- Beaumont Hospital Grosse Pointe has received state Certificate of Need approval to perform life-saving, emergency percutaneous coronary intervention (angioplasty) for patients coming to the hospital's Emergency Center having a heart attack.

"The ability to perform emergency angioplasty will speed up treatment for heart attack patients with ST-elevation and save heart muscle and lives," says Basil Dudar, M.D., director, Interventional Cardiovascular Laboratory at Beaumont, Grosse Pointe.

"Our CON approval for emergency PCI builds upon our accreditation as a Chest Pain Center and our certification as a Primary Stroke Center in 2010," says Georges Ghafari, M.D., chief of cardiovascular medicine at the hospital. "We offer expedited diagnosis and treatment for patients coming to our Emergency Center with cardiovascular conditions. Our dedicated physicians and staff work hard to provide our community with high quality, compassionate cardiac care."

An EKG is a tracing of the heart's electrical activity that is used in the diagnosis of an ST-elevation heart attack resulting from a 100 percent blockage in at least one of the heart's arteries. Local EMS staff  send a chest pain patient's EKG to Beaumont Grosse Pointe Emergency Center physicians allowing treatment to begin immediately when the patient arrives.

In order to preserve heart muscle, emergency PCI allows physicians to restore normal blood flow within minutes with a minimally invasive procedure called balloon angioplasty performed in a cardiac catheterization laboratory. In this procedure, a thin, flexible tube (catheter) is inserted through the groin and threaded into the arteries of the heart. A balloon is inflated to open up the arterial blockage, and a tiny wire, mesh device called a stent is placed to prop the artery open and prevent reblockage.

A state-of-the-art interventional laboratory opened at Beaumont, Grosse Pointe in 2010 for heart and vascular diagnostic and interventional procedures.

The hospital's designation as a Chest Pain Center by the Society of Chest Pain Centers means that it has met stringent SCPC criteria for coordinating hospital emergency treatment with local emergency medical services. The accreditation also recognizes a high level of expertise in caring for patients who arrive with heart attack symptoms; the use of standardized diagnosis and treatment for efficient, effective evaluation; and rapid treatment of patients with chest pain and other heart attack symptoms.

Beaumont Hospital Grosse Pointe is a 250-bed hospital opened in 1945 by the Sisters of Bon Secours. It was purchased by Beaumont Health System in October 2007, making Beaumont a three-hospital regional health care provider.

More at www.beaumont.edu.

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