Hospitals Teaming Up to Save Lives

MINNEAPOLIS - Seconds count during a cardiac emergencies, especially when patients are traveling from rural areas to metro hospitals. But a new system of protocol being used by Allina Hospitals is helping save lives.

One rural doctor told FOX 9 that years ago making a diagnosis would take tracking down a specialist.

By the time the doctor read a scan and got to the hospital it was often too late. But with cooperation and communication, that has changed.

Germaine Powelk can't thank Physician Assistant Beth Boyum enough for getting the ball rolling on the surgery that saved her life. It all started at Ridgeview Medical Center in Waconia, where Boyum ordered a CT scan that was then read at Abbott Northwestern Hospital.

Powelk's condition was immediately diagnosed as a ruptured aortic aneurism. From the time of the scan happened to the 32-mile ambulance ride from Waconia to Minneapolis, it took just an hour to get Powelk on the operating table.

Years ago, rural hospitals would describe x-rays over the phone to specialists. Thanks to new technology and protocol that is changing everything.