Photo provided by Physio-Control, Inc.

BLOOMINGTON — With the funds from an OSF HealthCare Systems grant, McLean County Area EMS System is equipping its ambulances with the LIFENET System that allows them to transmit electrocardiogram information electronically to hospitals via the Internet and increase the time it takes to diagnose and treat a patient suffering from a heart attack.

A product of Physio-Control, the LIFENET System is a state-of-the-art system designed to connect emergency medical service (EMS) teams and hospital personnel so that a patient can receive treatment as quickly as possible. The LIFENET System securely transmits a patient’s 12-lead EKG data from a cardiac monitor/defibrillator in an EMS vehicle to a hospital over the Internet.
“The ambulances will have the equipment to transmit the data from the 12-lead EKG machines and then there is receiving software in the emergency departments that receives those signals,” said McLean County Area EMS System Director Greg Scott. “It sounds an audible and visual alarm to the emergency department to let them know they have that transmission coming in and it allows them to print out that information from that 12-lead EKG in the emergency department, so that the emergency department physician can see that date before the patient has, often times, left that location where the ambulance is.”
The 12-lead EKG information will provide hospital care teams with critical patient data, allowing them to prepare for the immediate medical care that the patient needs.
“Use of LIFENET technology will allow the EMS agencies to transmit the EKG quickly, thus allowing the hospital to prepare by calling in staff and be ready when the patient arrives,” said Jennifer Sedbrook, the Cardiovascular Services Line Leader for OSF HealthCare System.

The LIFENET System will save lives by reducing the door-to-balloon time in acute myocardial infarctions that result when heart muscle dies due to a sudden blockage of a coronary artery by a blood clot, said Scott.
“If someone is having an acute myocardial infarction, which is basically a heart attack and they need to go to the cardiac catheterization lab, it will allow the emergency department to alert the cardiologist and the cath lab team earlier, so that they are there and set up and ready to go when that patient comes in,” said Scott. “The national measurement is door-to-balloon time — from when the patient enters the hospital to when the balloon is inserted into the arteries and inflated. That’s going to decrease those times.”
All of the agencies in the McLean County Area EMS System that includes Armington Fire & Rescue, Bloomington Fire Department, Bloomington Township Fire Protection District, Carlock Fire Protection District, Congerville Emergency Medical Transport, Clinton Ambulance Service, Danvers Emergency, Dale Township Fire Protection, Downs Community Fire Protection District, El Paso Emergency Squad, Hopedale Rescue Squad, Hudson Fire Department, Leroy Emergency Ambulance, Lexington Ambulance Association, Mackinaw Rescue Squad, Mt. Hope Funks Grove, Normal Fire Department and Towanda Community Fire Department will be equipped with the LIFENET System by the end of January of 2012, said Scott.
“We’ve got a number of them in our area that are all installed and up and running, but there still is a number to go,” said Scott. “We’re hoping to have it fully implemented in January of 2012.”
In addition to the McLean County Area EMS System, OSF HealthCare Systems grants were distributed to EMS agencies in the areas of Peoria, Pontiac, Rockford and Monmouth for the purchase of the LIFENET System.