Put Your Heart in the Right Hands
Thirty minutes or less. That’s how quickly Northridge Hospital Medical Center’s specialized Cath Lab Team assembles while a heart attack patient is transported to our facility.
Imagine this: Your loved one complains of crushing chest pain and difficulty breathing and is sweating profusely—all symptoms of a heart attack. You immediately call 9-1-1 and administer CPR until paramedics arrive. You've just taken the first crucial steps to saving your loved one’s life.
Door-to-intervention treatment times are consistently under 90 minutes with EMS activation. That allows for 30 minutes to arrive at the
Emergency Department
, 30 minutes to get to the Cath Lab and prepare the patient and 30 minutes to open the artery with a balloon catheter that enlarges the narrow opening for the procedure.
The race against time begins with the EMS crew who responds to the 9-1-1 call. We are one of the first hospitals designated by LA County as a STEMI (heart attack) Center in the Emergency Department for our superior care of heart attack victims. In 2006 many paramedics in the Valley attended continuing education classes on STEMI Receiving Centers—one of which was hosted by Northridge Hospital’s CardioVascular Center.
Northridge Hospital Medical Center ensures quality patient care, specifically for our heart and pneumonia patients. In 2007 The Joint Commission (TJC) the national accrediting organization, compared our performance with eight local hospitals.
Northridge Hospital was the only one to score “above the performance of most Joint Commission accredited organizations” in three key areas: heart attack, congestive heart failure and pneumonia. Our outstanding level of care extended into 2008. According to TJC, care for heart and pneumonia patients was above that of other accredited organizations in the state and nation.
Doctors Still Make House Calls? It’s True!
The
Northridge Family Practice Center
provides
good old-fashioned healthcare
in the Heart of the Valley. As one of the few teaching hospitals in the Valley, the
Family Medicine Residency Program
is affiliated with the Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and has educated family physicians for more than three decades. The training extends beyond the Family Practice Center and into Northridge Hospital where residents see patients under the direct care and supervision of an attending physician on staff.
Shrinking Fibroid ... No Surgery Required
A fibroid is a non-cancerous tumor that’s taken its claim as the number one cause for a hysterectomy…until now. With the advent of Uterine Fibroid Embolization (UFE), women now have a highly-successful, safe, non-invasive choice to treat fibroids of any size. Most patients who undergo UFE require only a one-night hospital stay. However, some women go home the day of the procedure.
In this issue we also meet three of our community board members and recognize the Pump Family who has raised more than $3 million for the treatment and cure of cancer. We invite you to download this issue, or individual articles.
