Mt. Sinai Queens patients get speedy transfers with new app

Mt. Sinai has launched an app to help doctors expedite care for patients in need of cardiac care. Screenshot via Google Maps

By Rachel Vick

Mount Sinai Health System is launching an app to speed up heart attack patients’ access to care by improving communication between doctors, nurses and hospital staff.

STEMIcathAID is geared towards patients with the most extreme artery blockages who need to be transferred from the Queens branch in Astoria to the Hospital's Cardiac Catheterization Lab on the Upper East Side..

“This is a unique platform that will make the standard of care of STEMI patients more predictable, efficient, and urgent,” Annapoorna Kini, MD, the director of the Cardiac Catheterization Lab at Mount Sinai. “With enhanced communication, we can more reliably activate the cath lab and prepare for the patient’s arrival… by getting to the cath lab faster, patients will have fewer complications from the heart attack and may be discharged earlier from the hospital.”

Every year, nearly 150 patients are transferred from the Queens emergency room to Manhattan, covering six miles of often traffic-laden roadway.

To expedite the process, when patients in the ER are suspected to be experiencing a ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction — or STEMI — their doctors will send a notification and updates in the app. Prior to the launch, staff had to rely on phone calls and wait for test results to come through from the other borough.

In a test run, a patient made it from one hospital to the other in 20 minutes to have a stent placed, despite rush hour traffic.

“Automated data extraction allows for immediate case review and process improvement,” said Haydee Garcia, the director of nursing at Mount Sinai Heart. “This mobile technology integrated into our STEMI system activation is truly taking us to the next level of high quality patient care.”