Posted on 12/03/2008 10:25:19 PM PST by neverdem
Starting on Jan. 1, New York City ambulances will take many cardiac arrest patients only to hospitals that use a delicate cooling therapy believed to reduce the chances of brain damage and increase the chances of survival, even if it means bypassing closer emergency rooms.
The move by the city’s Fire Department and Emergency Medical Service, after a year of preparation, indicates a shift away from the prevailing view among emergency workers and the public that how fast critically ill patients reach the hospital is more important than which hospital treats them.
It amounts to an endorsement by the Bloomberg administration of a labor-intensive, often expensive and still-developing therapy that smaller community hospitals say they lack the staffing and financial wherewithal to provide.
Some hospital officials fear that the policy could be unfair to these smaller hospitals, depriving them of income from emergency-room patients and hurting their reputations with the public.
Since the Fire Department sent letters to hospital chief executives this week informing them of the impending change, about 20 of the 59 hospitals with emergency rooms have said they will have cooling operations ready by the Jan. 1 deadline.
Dr. David J. Prezant, chief medical officer of the New York Fire Department, acknowledged the culture change and the possibility that some hospitals would feel slighted. But he argued that scientific data shows the survival rate of cardiac arrest patients treated with therapeutic hypothermia, as the cooling process is called, is so much better than with conventional treatment that it would be irresponsible not to provide it.
“Theoretically every closest 911-receiving hospital will be able to provide this service,” he noted. “Whether that will be a reality or not is not for me to say.”
New York joins a handful of other American cities, including Seattle, Boston and Miami...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
this is very interesting, but it doesn’t do much for those of us outside of major metro areas.
I applaude this excellent public health move.
Bloomberg may be a manipulative nanny, but at least he is minimally competent.
A pitcher of ice water over the victim?
If you don't do anything, you'll by getting sued. You can start by hanging cooled IV solutions. Communities can start fund drives for local community hospitals. Think of the rehab costs that will be avoided.
Paterson Voices Support for M.T.A. Rescue Plan
FReepmail me if you want on or off my New York ping list.
sure, and there aren’t Level I trauma centers every 10 miles across the land but that doesn’t mean they aren’t incredibly beneficial where they can be funded
this does sound quite promising
Can you imagine when they're all government workers! They'll refuse to do anything and spend all day covering their butts.(even more so than now)
I worked for Medivance back in 2004-2005 until they lost their venture capital funding.
bump for later read
I’m sorry to read about your father. Prayers sent.
Thank you.
Thanks for the ping!
Who sold the machines to the hospitals?
Who are the major stock holders?
I have no idea.
I thought the makers were mentioned in the story. I linked back to the story. When I posted it, I used this URL for the printer friendly page.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/nyregion/04cool.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print
It opened on the regular webpage.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/nyregion/04cool.html
Next time I'll remove the _r=1&hp=& before pagewanted=print to see if that helps. Thanks for helping me catch their altering of URLs.
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