By RODNEY HART

Herald-Whig Staff Writer

Ambulance services in three counties will soon transmit heart information by wireless network to Blessing Hospital.

Blessing recently bought software and hardware to allow the advanced life support-equipped ambulances in Adams, Pike and Brown counties to use the new system. The information gathered by the heart test known as a 12-Lead EKG will go directly from those ambulances to doctors in the Blessing Hospital Emergency Center.

"It's a great asset, especially to a rural area," said Adam Hammitt, administrator of the Pittsfield-based Pike County Ambulance Service. "We have an hour-plus transfer time to any kind of cardiac center. To get that info to a cath lab, ER or to that person's physician, they'll be able to have treatment prepared or know where to go for the best treatments."

Dr. Richard Saalborn, medical director of Blessing's Emergency Center, says knowing exactly what the EKG says before the patient arrives means giving the right care more quickly.

"This is a major benefit to patients in getting the appropriate therapy as fast as possible," Saalborn said. "In cases where it is better to open a clogged artery than treat with medication, we can know much earlier, notify the cardiologist and cardiac catheterization lab team even
sooner, and have the opportunity to save more heart muscle."

Saalborn said the equipment will be easy to use and should be up and running soon.

"You've heard the old cliche -- 'Time is heart muscle,' " Saalborn said. "The transmission will be used multiple times during the day. It's around eight to 10 times a month when we have patients taken to the cath lab for acute intervention."

The wireless connection between the ambulances and Blessing ER will give doctors hard data in real time to make potentially lifesaving decisions.

"Basically, you just hit a button and it sends it electronically to all the corresponding people," Hammitt said. "As soon as chest pain hits, the clock starts ticking and damage is already occurring. ... Early onset and early activation is the key to the program working."

An electrocardiogram is a test that measures the heart's electrical activity. A 12-Lead EKG provides heart readings from a dozen different angles. A doctor is able to read the pattern the EKG machine makes and determine whether the patient is having a heart attack.

Randy Faxon, EMS system coordinator at Blessing, said that in the past, paramedics and emergency medical technicians have sent 12-Lead EKG readings to the Emergency Center fax machine.

"The quality of a fax is not always the best," Faxon said. "When cell service went digital, we lost that (fax) ability and had to rely on the first responders simply telling the Emergency Center what they were seeing on the EKG reading.

"Now, we will be able to immediately transmit the patient's reading directly to Blessing Hospital computers in a clear, digital format."

Dr. Steven Krause, medical director of the Blessing Heart and Vascular Center Cardiac Catheterization Lab, said staff has had to rely on someone else's interpretation of EKGs. That will change once the wireless network is in place in all the ambulances.

"Now doctors and cardiologists can see the patient's information with their own eyes and make decisions earlier based on all the vital information," Krause said of the network.

The Adams, Pike and Brown County ambulance services are involved in the wireless project because they all use the same brand of 12-Lead EKG system.

-- rhart@whig.com/221-3370