A Personal Perspective: At the Crossroads of Heart Attack Care

Abstract

This report presents a field-tested approach to the greatest health care problem facing our country, the fact that two-thirds of the deaths from acute myocardial infarction occur before hospital admission. Scores of fundraising appearances for the Missouri Heart Association during the 1950s and 1960s throughout the 1,000,000 population rural/urban Southwest Missouri region gave an ideal setting for teaching the public the early symptoms of heart attack. Audiences were advised that if any of these appeared they should immediately call their doctor or quickly get to the nearest hospital emergency room. These presentations led to a steady increase in hospital admissions. The Missouri Heart Association responded by launching the Early Warning Signs of Heart Attack Public and Professional Education Program in July 1971, incorporating these messages in radio, TV, and newspaper Public Service Announcements. In less than 6 months, analysis of consecutive admissions to the cardiovascular intensive care unit of the base hospital showed that the median time from the onset of symptoms to starting to the hospital was reduced from 4 to 2.2 hours; 64% of those patients called their doctor as their first step in seeking help and 58% went to the hospital by car. This message content was carried through the 1980s and 1990s under other auspices. The methods of the successful Missouri program are contrasted with others that have failed, establishing essential features in designing a nationwide program effective in hastening acute myocardial infarction patient hospital arrival.