Why was TRMC selected as one of 10 Georgia hospitals to participate in the study?
TRMC was selected to participate in the clinical study because of the hospital’s advanced cardiovascular facilities, trained staff and support from TiftCounty’s Emergency Medical Services (EMS). TRMC has one interventional cardiologist on the medical staff, Dr. Paul Murray, and one invasive cardiologist, Dr. William Hancock. TRMC is expected to perform up to 250 PCI cases per year. Has PCI without open-heart surgery back-up been proven effective in other states? Yes. PCI clinical trials have been conducted in other states and in Europe and has been proven safe and effective. A recent study by Johns Hopkins Hospital, reported by U.S. News & World Report and the Journal of American Medicine, followed 400 heart attack patients who were randomly sent either for clot busting drugs or angioplasty at 11 general hospitals that did not have heart surgery back-up. Six months later, the death rate among the angioplasty patients was 30 percent lower than in the clot buster group, and the rate of s
