Each year nearly 400,000 patients enter hospitals suffering a heart attack. The faster these patients receive artery-clearing intervention, the more heart muscle is preserved, and their chance for survival increases.

Aiken Regional participates in a national quality improvement campaign called the Door-to-Balloon, or D2B, Alliance. D2B focuses on shortening the time between when a patient enters the hospital door and when artery-clearing angioplasty is performed.

The American College of Cardiology began building a network of D2B hospitals—the alliance—in June 2006. Participating hospitals implemented a series of evidence-based strategies with the goal of achieving D2B times of 90 minutes or less, which can dramatically improve patient outcomes. These strategies focus on process improvement and cooperation and coordination among departments and staff.

The D2B Alliance also encourages networking hospitals to share findings, barriers and successes to promote improvement.

To learn more, watch Aiken Regional Medical Centers' Intelligent Medicine commercial on the Door-to-Balloon Alliance: