You can't always be prepared for emergencies. Good thing we are.
The Emergency Department at Pinckneyville Community Hospital is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by physicians contracted through Envision. The highly trained, registered nurses who work in the Emergency Department receive additional courses in Advanced Cardiac Life Support, Pediatric Advanced Life Support, and Trauma Nurse Training. The ancillary support services at Pinckneyville Community Hospital are ready to act in emergency. Technicians in both our Laboratory and Imaging Department's are staffed around the clock in the case of emergencies.
Emergent Stroke Ready Hospital
When it comes to treating a stroke, time is crucial. Each second a patient waits to be treated, the brain is denied much needed blood and oxygen. Stroke designation for Pinckneyville Community Hospital allows local access to the care needed the very moment the qualifying patient enters the hospital to the time a life-saving medication is administered within the 60-minute treatment window.
In 2009, the Illinois General Assembly passed MB 2244, allowing the creation of stroke systems of care in Illinois. The Illinois Stroke Law identifies hospitals capable of providing emergency stroke care and directs emergency medical services personnel to transport possible stroke patients to those hospitals.
Our partnership with the Mid-American Stroke Network, from Saint Louis University Hospital, gives our community 24/7 access to experienced stroke-trained neurologists who will work with us to evaluate and administer the most effective and appropriate treatments for people suffering from stroke or other neurological conditions.
This means more people in our community will have access to neurologist and will receive the lifesaving care they need close to home. A patient who may need a higher level of care, can be quickly identified and transferred to a larger facility to receive additional treatments. Everyone else will be able to stay right here and be close to home.
Stat Heart Participant
Pinckneyville Community Hospital is a participant in the Prairie Cardiovascular "Stat Heart" program. This program identifies, treats and transfers acute heart attack patients to a cardiac cath lab within minutes of arriving at the Emergency Department at Pinckneyville Community Hospital.
The Prairie STAT Heart Program was one of the first in the country to focus on streamlining emergency care to meet the national goal of providing angioplasty (a non-surgical procedure to treat diseased arteries) within 90 to 120 minutes from a patient's arrival at the community hospital (often referred to as door-to-balloon time). This insures that the patient located in the rural community receives emergent heart care as fast or faster than patients in larger urban areas. Since the launch of the Prairie STAT Heart Program in August 2007 in Carbondale, the program has served over 300 patients in southern Illinois who suffer from ST-elevated acute myocardial infarctions (the worst kind of heart attack).
Once an Emergency Department physician has identified an acute heart attack patient, the Stat Heart team is immediately activated. Once the patient arrives at Memorial Hospital in Carbondale, a team is standing by and immediately determines the best appropriate intervention for that patient.
