That’s the target for maximum “door-to-balloon” time, or the time that elapses between a patient’s arrival at a hospital with signs of a severe heart attack and inflation of a tiny balloon to install a stent in a blocked coronary artery, said Dr. Leonardo Macias.
“In heart attacks, you’re talking about very time-sensitive care, right? … Minutes matter,” said Macias, a cardiologist with Presbyterian Heart Group.
Courtesy Presbyterian Healthcare Services
A new cardiac catheterization lab at Presbyterian Santa Fe Medical Center aims to expand access to quick and critical heart care in Northern New Mexico, where heart disease is the leading cause of death, according to data from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.
Set to open in July 2027, the $6 million facility will offer diagnostic services and around-the-clock treatment, meaning patients experiencing severe heart attacks will no longer have to be transferred to another facility to get the care they need.
Amid a state- and nationwide shortage of doctors, Miller said the hospital is already making plans to recruit more cardiologists, nurse practitioners and other clinical workers to staff the new lab at all hours.
After reporting an annual operating loss of $568.2 million in a December financial disclosure, Presbyterian Healthcare Services announced plans in June to lay off 150 employees — but the health system has said those layoffs extended solely to administrative workers, not direct patient care workers.
Hospital Chief Executive Callie Miller said the new cardiac facility is “a milestone” for Presbyterian Santa Fe Medical Center, which long has had the space — but not the trimmings, equipment or staff — for a dedicated cardiac catheterization lab.
“It’s really going to raise the acuity level of the patients that we’re able to care for at the hospital,” she said. “I think it’s going to raise the perception of Presbyterian Santa Fe in the community to say: We can care for really sick patients.”
During cardiac catheterization, doctors place a long, thin tube called a catheter into patients’ blood vessels, eventually threading the catheter into their coronary arteries. Macias said it’s a diagnostic tool, allowing cardiologists to get a good look at the condition of the arteries ahead of an emergency.
But cardiac catheterization is also a therapeutic tool when heart attack patients arrive at a hospital. “The most effective and the quickest way to open that heart artery is with a balloon and a stent,” Macias said. He called the intervention a “gold standard” that improves survival rates and decreases long-term damage to the heart.
Without a cardiac catheterization lab in place now, Presbyterian Santa Fe Medical Center has to transfer patients to equivalent facilities at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center across town or Presbyterian facilities in Albuquerque, Miller said.
Given the tight time limits for patients facing severe heart attacks, travel time is not preferable. Under ideal conditions, Macias said, doctors would like to reduce door-to-balloon time to less than 60 minutes.
“There’s a timeliness to this, and, if you’re the patient, you don’t want to have to be transferred to multiple facilities to receive care,” Miller added.
Once the cardiac catheterization lab opens next year, emergency treatment in the lab will be available for patients 24/7, since heart attacks often don’t adhere to business hours.
“Treating a heart attack is a team effort. It’s a huge team effort,” Macias said. “And so, Presbyterian and the heart and vascular program are deeply invested and are intentionally focused on aggressive recruitment strategies to be ready to support this addition to our program.”
