SGMC Provides High-tech Equipment to Area Ambulance Services

In order to speed life-giving intervention to heart patients around the region, South Georgia Medical Center has purchased Rosetta Lt Data Translators for the public and private ambulance services in Brooks, Berrien and Cook Counties. Previously, SGMC purchased devices for ambulances in Lanier, Lowndes and Clinch Counties. Now, all ambulances in the region have the capability to send 12-lead electrocardiograms (ECG) by way of 2-way radio, 800 MHz radio frequency, cell phone or landline phone to SGMC’s Emergency Department from miles away.South Georgia Medical Center was the first hospital in Georgia to implement the CAREpoint EMS workstation and Rosetta Lt Data Translators devices in its ambulances and Emergency Department last year. For victims of severe heart attacks, time is the difference between life and death. The ECG can be sent from a patient’s home or jobsite or while the ambulance is en route to SGMC. If a patient is experiencing a STEMI, which stands for an ST-elevation myocardial infarction, the hospital can prepare sooner, rather than later, for the patient’s arrival.Once the ECG is received by the ED, it can be forwarded to the cardiologist on call. Being able to forward information to a physician’s fax machine, computer or PDA speeds up the hospital’s response time allowing physicians to be on their way to the hospital, if need be, and activating cath lab call team prior to the ambulance’s actual arrival at the ED. The implementation of this equipment has already helped SGMC meet the 90-minute recommended door-to-balloon angioplasty time recommended by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association.With the standardization of 12-lead capability throughout the region, chances are more lives will be saved as the door to cath time is shortened. SGMC provided the equipment as a community benefit supporting our not for profit mission to improve the health and wellness of those in the communities we serve. For more information, contact SGMC’s Mobile Healthcare Services at 249-4045.