Chandigarh: The dedicated cardiology triage unit at the Advanced Cardiac Centre (ACC), PGIMER, Chandigarh, managed 3,049 cardiac patients in nearly five months between March 9 and July 29, streamlining emergency care and improving patient flow.PGIMER director Prof Vivek Lal said the dedicated unit had created a structured pathway for rapid assessment and appropriate routing of cardiac patients, reducing the burden on the Nehru Hospital Main Emergency.Of the 3,049 patients, 1,108 (36.3%) were shifted to the Coronary Care Unit (CCU), while 1,513 (49.6%) were treated and discharged on an OPD basis. Another 298 (9.8%) were referred to the Nehru Hospital Emergency for non-cardiac emergencies, 85 (2.8%) were directed to Cardiology/CTVS OPDs and 30 (1%) were admitted to heart command for evaluation and stabilisation.The unit also facilitated 26 primary PCI procedures for patients requiring urgent cardiac intervention.Prof Lal said the initiative had enabled focused assessment, early clinical decision-making and more effective utilisation of emergency resources.Dr Rajesh Vijayvergiya, professor, department of cardiology, said the steadily rising patient volume demonstrated the need for a dedicated cardiac triage pathway. Weekly footfall increased from around 100 patients in March to over 200 in July, reaching 233 patients during July 9-15.Despite the increasing workload, the overall mortality remained at 0.5%, with 16 deaths recorded during the reporting period.The experience, PGIMER said, demonstrates that dedicated cardiac triage can reduce unnecessary admissions, improve patient flow and facilitate timely intervention in acute cardiac cases, offering a potentially scalable model for tertiary healthcare institutions.
