This comparative study assessed the effect of establishing a daytime percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) centre at Nordland Hospital Bodø (NLSH) on the quality of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) treatment for the Salten region. The service change began in February 2020 and the analysis covers patients treated through 31 October 2024. When the local PCI service was operational during daytime hours, patients could receive primary PCI in Bodø. Outside those opening hours, patients were managed with thrombolysis locally and then transported to the University Hospital of Northern Norway in Tromsø (UNN) for further care.
The study included all STEMI patients from the Salten region treated between 1 February 2020 and 31 October 2024. A total of 169 patients were included: 81 were treated at NLSH and 88 were treated at UNN. The report is presented as a comparative study; detailed patient-level demographics, comorbidities, and other baseline characteristics were not reported in the abstract.
Investigators analysed established quality indicators for STEMI care and compared achievement of these targets during NLSH opening hours versus outside opening hours. Overall, treatment met quality targets in 67% of patients during opening hours at NLSH compared with 11% of patients treated outside opening hours. The abstract does not list the specific individual quality targets but reports the aggregated achievement proportions.
Time from diagnostic ECG to definitive reperfusion (defined as successful thrombolysis or PCI) was a key process metric in the analysis. Median times reported in the abstract were:
For the subgroup who did not receive or did not respond to thrombolysis, median time to reperfusion differed further: 70 minutes when definitive reperfusion occurred via local resources versus 235 minutes when patients were managed through the transfer pathway to UNN. These figures indicate substantially shorter time to reperfusion when local PCI services were available.
When local PCI was not available, thrombolysis was used as the initial reperfusion strategy before transfer. Among patients considered for thrombolysis the study reports that 46% received thrombolytic therapy with a clinically judged successful response. The abstract does not provide details on thrombolytic agents used, dosing, objective criteria for successful reperfusion, or adverse events related to thrombolysis; those details were not reported in the source abstract.
The study evaluated an exploratory combined clinical endpoint consisting of death within 30 days or left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) <50% at hospital discharge. The authors report that longer time to definitive reperfusion was associated with the combined endpoint of reduced EF at discharge or death within 30 days. Specific effect sizes, statistical tests, confidence intervals, or adjustment for confounders are not provided in the abstract.
In this regional comparison covering 2020–2024, availability of daytime local PCI at Nordland Hospital Bodø was associated with a higher proportion of patients meeting predefined quality targets and with substantially shorter median times from ECG to definitive reperfusion for STEMI patients from the Salten region. Thrombolysis remained an important strategy outside PCI opening hours, with a clinically judged successful response in 46% of those who received it. Exploratory data linked longer reperfusion delays to worse short-term outcomes defined by EF at discharge or 30-day mortality. The abstract does not provide further methodological details, full outcome data, or safety/adverse event reporting; readers should consult the full text for comprehensive methods and results.