Rochester Hills Paramedics Beat the Clock and Save a Life

Last spring, paramedics from the Rochester Hills Fire Department worked their life-saving magic.

It was May 8 when the crew of four responded to a medical emergency at a home on the city's south side, where a 37-year-old man was having a stroke. Just 23 minutes after the paramedics reached the door of the home, the man was inside the emergency room at Crittenton Hospital Medical Center, where he received a life-saving injection.

In hospital ER circles, that's considered a "door-to-needle" time worthy of an award (the average time at the hospital last year was more than three times that). And an award is what paramedics Ryan Moravcik, Todd Beckett, Christine Potter and Rich Welch recently received.

Along with the Washington Township Fire Department, who had a door-to-needle time of 21 minutes last year, the Rochester Hills paramedics were recognized by Crittenton's ER staff at a quarterly First Responders breakfast.

For more on emergency room care at Crittenton, read "How Long an ER Wait at Crittenton?"

The Rochester Hills paramedics agreed there's a special place in any fire department for awards that recognize life-saving speed, like the plaque they received for the fast run last spring. But in the end, they said, it's really about the people they help.

"It's competitive, for sure, but it's a good thing," said Tim Matz, EMS coordinator for the Rochester Hills Fire Department. "The overall goal is for us to help the patient."

Stroke treatment 

In addition to measuring the speed of emergency responders, the door-to-needle time is considered part of a crucial measurement of an emergency room's success. The sooner paramedics can help diagnose, weigh, stabilize and transport a stroke patient, the sooner doctors can administer treatment — in this case, Tissue Plasminogen Activator, or t-PA.

t-PA is an injection that dissolved blood clots and often saves stroke patients' lives. Because it has to be given within hours of the onset of stroke symptoms, "time is brain," said Bernie Hung, manager of cardiopulmonary services at the hospital, which is a nationally certified Primary Stroke Center.

In 2012 the Crittenton emergency room treated 203 stroke patients; the average door-to-needle time was 84.6 minutes; the hospital's goal is for that time to be under 60 minutes.

"We're trying to foster better outcomes to decrease disabilities," said Hung.

In the case of the man treated by Rochester Hills paramedics last May, that outcome was positive: the patient ended up walking out of the hospital on his own, and he did not need rehab, doctors said.