Marshall Browning Hospital Participates in Prairie "STAT Heart" Cardiac Program

Du Quoin, Illinois - March 21, 2008 - Marshall Browning Hospital in DuQuoin, is participating in "STAT Heart," a cardiac program that identifies, treats, and transfers acute heart attack patients to a cardiac cath lab within 90 minutes of arriving in Marshall Browning Hospital's emergency room. Prairie Cardiologist and Memorial Hospital of Carbondale came together in a collaborator effort to serve heart-attack patients in Southern Illinois.

"Studies show that the quicker the heart muscle arteries are reopened, the better the outcome," said Pam Shadowens R.N. and coordinator of the STAT Heart program in Southern Illinois. "Heart attack patients are much better off if blood flow to the heart is restored by a cardiologist doing a procedure in a cath lab compared to clot-busting drugs routinely used in rural hospitals."

The STAT Heart program melds cooperation and collaboration between the community hospital emergency department, EMS ground and air transport, Memorial Hospital of Carbondale, and cardiologists of Prairie Cardiovascular.

Once an emergency room physician has identified an acute heart attack patient, the STAT Heart team is paged to respond. The team verifies that the patient is an appropriate candidate for the program and receives proper medication. The Prairie cardiologist and receiving hospital are alerted, and transport is arranged for the patient. All activity occurs in a very abbreviated period of time so the patient arrives in the cardiac cath lab within 90 minutes or less, which is faster than many metropolitan hospitals.

Prairie Cardiovascular Cardiologist in Springfield along with Springfield's Memorial Medical Center and Prairie Heart Institute at St. John's Hospital launched the STAT Heart Program, December 2004, and already has served over 406 patients in central and southern Illinois who suffer the worst types of heart attacks - those likely to cause death or severe heart damage. "The program has been successful beyond anything we would have imagined," said Jim Zito.

The Prairie STAT Heart combines the resources and protocol sharing of all entities for the most efficient and highest quality of patient heart care. For 2004, Prairie Cardiovascular was nationally recognized as "Practice of the Year" by Physicians Practice magazine.

"This program will expedite immediate cardiac care based on current standards of care that are in uniformity with Prairie Cardiovascular. We will be able to provide to our patients who are having an acute myocardial infarction appropriate treatment in a much quicker way than we've ever been able to provide previously. This collaboration eliminates a lot of the timely procedures that we were normally faced with during hospital-to-hospital transfers" said Karen Williams, RN and Emergency Room Supervisor at Marshall Browning Hospital.

Marshall Browning Hospital is a 25-bed Critical Access Hospital whose Emergency Room is staffed by a physician 24/7. Marshall Browning admitted its first patient into a new $7.7 million patient wing in February 2008. The new wing also includes a new state-of-the-art surgical department, laboratory, pharmacy and inpatient rehab area. The hospital also includes Marshall Browning Rehabilitation Center, located on the hospital campus. The center offers Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, Sports Medicine services as well as Cardiac Rehab services. The campus also includes a 22-unit Independent Living Center. Marshall Browning Hospital is fully accredited by The Joint Commission.