PATIENTS MAY BYPASS NEWHALL MEMORIAL AMBULANCES TO GO DIRECTLY TO PROVIDENCE HOLY CROSS FOR SOME HEART ATTACK VICTIMS.

Byline: ALEX DOBUZINSKIS Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- Ambulances will take patients with heart attacks caused by blood clots to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center, bypassing Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital because it doesn't have the best procedures for the condition, hospital officials said Monday.

Before Jan. 1, patients suffering an ST-elevated myocardial infarction were taken to the nearest hospital. For Santa Clarita residents, that often meant a trip to Newhall Memorial, then a transfer to Providence Holy Cross, about 14 miles south in Mission Hills, according to Providence.

But by communicating with ambulance paramedics, who relay electrocardiogram readings, doctors determine whether a patient is suffering a STEMI heart attack and needs to go directly to Holy Cross -- saving valuable time.

``The golden opportunity is that one- to two-hour period after the onset of the heart attack,'' said Dr. Ara Tilkian, medical director of the STEMI receiving center at Holy Cross.

The change is the latest incursion by the Providence Health System into Santa Clarita patient care. Providence in 2005 opened an outpatient center at Valencia Boulevard and McBean Parkway, and it has billboards around town marketing itself.

Holy Cross has been designated by the county as one of 12 specialty centers for acute heart attack patients, according to the hospital. With the designation, the county requires ambulances to take patients suffering a STEMI-type heart attack to a hospital equipped to deal with the condition, if they are no more than 30 minutes away.

When Holy Cross doctors get a patient suffering a STEMI heart attack, one caused by a blood clot, they can insert a wire through the artery and use a small balloon to clear the blockage, according to the hospital.

So fewer patients die, and damage to the heart is limited by applying the procedure quickly.

``It's a very linear relationship,'' Tilkian said. ``The more the delay, the more the mortality rate goes up.''

Before the procedure was developed more than 15 years ago, the mortality rate for patients suffering a STEMI heart attack was about 20 percent, Tilkian said. The new procedure for opening the artery has reduced the mortality rate to 5 percent, or less in some settings, he said.

And long-term damage to the heart is limited by applying the procedure quickly.

In 2006, about 1.2 million Americans suffered a heart attack, and one-quarter to one-third of them had a STEMI-type heart attack, according to a study published this month in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Newhall Memorial is working on building a cardiac catheterization lab so that the hospital can also accept patients suffering a STEMI-type heart attack, spokeswoman Andie Bogdan said.

``We've actually received a donation for a cardiac cath lab from the community,'' she said. ``It's something that we're very much looking forward to bringing into the community, because it is the gold standard.''

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