Critical care just a heartbeat away

Critical care just a heartbeat away
By Cecil Conley | Daily Republic | April 03, 2009

FAIRFIELD - Who has the elevator key?

If practice makes perfect, that question will never have to be asked when NorthBay Healthcare opens the first heart and vascular center in Solano County. NorthBay has been rehearsing because once the center is licensed and operational, one wrong move could be fatal.

'We cannot make a mistake,' NorthBay President Deborah Sugiyama said Thursday.

The project at NorthBay Medical Center has been five years in the making, and there has been no time to spare. Every detail -- even one as simple as who will be responsible for the elevator key -- has been covered multiple times in meetings, debriefings and surgery simulations.

'We have had 50 people go through 12,000 hours of training, and that's a conservative estimate,' said Diana Sullivan, who joined NorthBay in April 2008 as the director of cardiovascular service lines. Sullivan was then handed the task of bringing the project plan to fruition.

Sullivan orchestrated two simulations last week, a scheduled surgery and an emergency episode. The elevator key was a factor in each drill.

The key is needed to lock down the elevator just outside the new surgery center, which is on the first floor. When a patient comes out of surgery and needs to be moved as quickly as possible to the intensive care unit on the third floor, the elevator has to be open and waiting.

Figuring out who will be responsible for the elevator key is just another part of the plan that was formulated by Kathy Richerson, a NorthBay vice president and the chief nursing officer. The clock has been ticking for Richerson from the moment NorthBay launched the project.

It will continue to tick once NorthBay can treat patients in need of cardiac intervention. Every minute counts in cardiac treatment, Richerson said. When a person calls 911 or comes to the emergency room and complains of chest pain, the countdown begins at 90 minutes.

'Time is muscle,' Richerson said. 'The faster you get to them, you can save more muscle.'

See the complete story at the Daily Republic online.