Patient Care Services

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Emergency Department
When a heart attack patient comes to Greenwich Hospital by ambulance, doctors in the Emergency Department are able to monitor the patient's condition and decide on a course of treatment even before the ambulance arrives at the hospital.

Crucial information transmitted to Greenwich Hospital's Emergency Department by paramedics in the field allows treatment to begin right away, saving 30 minutes on average. The vital data from the ambulance crews helps physicians know whether the patient is a candidate for primary angioplasty, the most effective treatment for acute heart attack. The emergency angioplasty program is part of the Yale New Haven Health Heart Institute at Greenwich Hospital, staffed by highly experienced, world-class cardiologists from Yale School of Medicine.

This communication link is possible through a partnership between Greenwich Hospital and Greenwich Emergency Medical Service, Inc. (GEMS), the local ambulance service. GEMS ambulances are equipped with mobile EKG units that give emergency department doctors a complete view of the patient's heart rhythm. That technology allows paramedics to transmit critical information to hospital staff who can summon the invasive cardiologist specialist and members of the angioplasty team 24 hours a day to treat the patient. The emergency department medical staff also works closely with the Westchester EMS units and are in the process of expanding the mobile EKG link to permit the time-saving benefit of early notification to the patients served by Westchester EMS.

Emergency Department staff is so keenly aware of the need to respond quickly that all medications and materials necessary to treat heart attack patients are immediately available through the hospital's automated medication and supply inventory system, which resembles a vending machine. This enables staff to be ready even before the patient arrives. In anticipation of the advances in emergency cardiac care, every examination room in the Emergency Department has been equipped with a cardiac monitor that is centrally monitored.

In another move to provide medical care as quickly as possible, GEMS and Greenwich Hospital jointly purchased automated defibrillators for Greenwich police cars so police officers can begin stabilizing the patient's heartbeat if they arrive first on the scene.

Physicians at Greenwich Hospital's Emergency Department urge people with heart attack symptoms to call 911 immediately. Every minute counts when it comes to matters of the heart.