Cardiac Emergency Center
The Cardiac Emergency Center at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital
operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the evaluation and emergency
treatment of patients with cardiovascular diseases. It is accessible by
emergency ground transportation as well as by helicopter air transport.
Patients who develop chest pain, chest discomfort, shortness of breath, dizziness, palpitations, swelling, or episodes of loss of consciousness are brought to RWJUH’s Cardiac Emergency Center for evaluation and emergency treatment. Here, patients undergo sophisticated assessments focused upon differentiating cardiac from non-cardiac problems and providing the latest in cardiac disease interventions.
Window of Opportunity
Because the first 120 minutes after arriving at an emergency room is a critical window for the survival from a serious heart attack, our center maintains a 24 hour, seven day a week multidisciplinary team of prehospital paramedics, interventional cardiologists, nurses and pharmacists that are specially trained to act swiftly within that “window of opportunity” where life saving emergency coronary angioplasty (primary PCI) is provided and has been proven to be more effective then thrombolytic drugs or any other measure in saving the lives of heart attack victims.
The Center performs these procedures within that critical time frame for over 95% of the patients treated in our center. This service is also available for those patients who have received clot busting drugs at neighboring hospitals when the drugs have not resolved the heart attack. Using expedited prehospital transportation, those patients can be brought to our Center for this life saving procedure.
For patients with chest or back pain symptoms suggesting dissection of the aorta, the Cardiac Emergency Center provides access to transesophageal echocardiography, CT scanning, and MRI. Cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons are available around the clock for management of the full spectrum of cardiac diseases.