Impact of a Region-wide Approach to Improving Systems for Heart Attack Care: the West Midlands Thrombolysis Project

Objective: To describe changes in delay to administration of thrombolytic therapy associated with a region-wide audit.

Design: Observational study of patients admitted with suspected myocardial infarction (MI) based on continuous audit.

Subjects: 18877 patients admitted to 23 hospitals with suspected MI between April 1995 and March 1998.

Results: Of 11232 patients with a discharge diagnosis of definite MI, 8802 (46.6%) received thrombolytic therapy during hospitalisation, with 5155 patients eligible for treatment on admission to hospital on the basis of established indications. Call-to-needle time for those eligible for treatment on admission fell from median 105 min in the first year of the project to 85 min in year 3 (P<0.001), and door-to-needle time fell from 45 to 35 min (P<0.001). Forty percent of eligible patients were treated within the then current national standard of 90 min from time of call for help, with nearly 49% in the final year and 20% being treated within the new national standard of 60 min, by the third year.

Conclusion: The proportion of eligible patients receiving thrombolysis within 1 h of the call for help doubled during the 3-year project but the majority of patients still wait longer than 60-min 'call-to-needle'. New systems to reduce delays to administration of thrombolysis to within 60 min of call for help are required, including consideration of pre-hospital treatment.