Patients that present with chest pain and acute coronary symptoms are taken very seriously. Chest pain protocol order sets are put into place quickly upon the patient's arrival to the hospital to see if the chest pain is cardiac or non cardiac related. The chest pain protocol is driven by evidence based practice to increase patient safety and expedite care. At my place of employment (a rural ER without a cardiac cath lab), the chest pain protocol consists of: performing an EKG within 10 minutes from patient's arrival time, IV access, lab draw (Troponin, CBC, CMP, INR, PTT), chest x-ray, oxygen, cardiac monitor, pulse ox, and Aspirin 324mg unless contraindicated. Using evidence based protocols when a patient is experiencing chest pain will help reduce delays in critical interventions such as thrombolytic therapy (if not contraindicated) for a patient experiencing a STEMI. Thrombolytic therapy, such as TNKase, can be used when transferring a patient from a Non-PCI to PCI facility if the intervention time will exceed ninety
Patients that present with chest pain and acute coronary symptoms are taken very seriously. Chest pain protocol order sets are put into place quickly upon the patient's arrival to the hospital to see if the chest pain is cardiac or non cardiac related. The chest pain protocol is driven by evidence based practice to increase patient safety and expedite care. At my place of employment (a rural ER without a cardiac cath lab), the chest pain protocol consists of: performing an EKG within 10 minutes from patient's arrival time, IV access, lab draw (Troponin, CBC, CMP, INR, PTT), chest x-ray, oxygen, cardiac monitor, pulse ox, and Aspirin 324mg unless contraindicated. Using evidence based protocols when a patient is experiencing chest pain will help reduce delays in critical interventions such as thrombolytic therapy (if not contraindicated) for a patient experiencing a STEMI. Thrombolytic therapy, such as TNKase, can be used when transferring a patient from a Non-PCI to PCI facility if the intervention time will exceed ninety