Development of Systems of Care for ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction Patients

Abstract

Creating an ideal system of care to address the care forpatients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) iscomplex from both the system’s and patient/family’s perspec-tives. In general, this care is unlike most other hospital care.It typically involves very fast and complex decision makingand, often, sudden transportation to another facility forpercutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). All of this occurswith a potentially critically ill patient and at a time when thefamily is often not immediately available. In this report, weaddress key perspectives from the patient and public point ofview of the current system of care for STEMI patients andhighlight the barriers and gaps that must be addressed by anideal system of care (Table 1).