Cardiac Cath Lab - Specialty Referral?

[RedZone]

Both my local hospitals are now "stroke centers", and one is getting a cath lab within the next few months.

Perhaps all hospitals will be going the direction of being both stroke and cath centers, while there will still be Trauma, Burn, and the one Snakebite, centers, due to the expected expenditures.

Be careful... many cath labs in NY hospitals are diagnostic only, they're not authorized to treat. Not the same as a PCI capable cath lab.

[RedZone]

Whatever poisonous reptiles we have on display at the Bronx Zoological Park. Due to location, closest ED is Bronx Municipal Hospital/Jacobi Medical Center, which is also the snakebite center.

One never knows what an individual might have in their home, brought in illegally from somewhere else. Remember, a few years ago, we had some guy in the Harlem section of Manhattan, had both a Lion and an alligator in his apartment, and the city only found out after the lion took a bite out of the guy! So, who is to say what types of exotic snakes are here? Certainly, not this reporter, your humble (?) servant.

Respect. I'll second everything said here. I've also heard some great things about Jacobi. They have a bank of every known antidote and some of the leading experts on envenomations. But the McDonald's next to the hyperbaric chamber? Never understood that one! I guess it's job security.. lol.

You work in Jacobi area, Rich? I brought a CO poisoning pt. to Dr. Dau the other day. I had instant respect for him, that's rare for me.

[Richard B the EMT]

Due to an injury, I am now on light duty at FDNY HQ, 9 MetroTech Center, in Brooklyn. When I was field-side, I most recently (7 years) covered Far Rockaway in Queens County, and from 1973 to 1996, covered the entire Rockaways Peninsula, from Beach 2 to Beach 169 Street, Jamaica Bay to the Atlantic Ocean, with the unfortunately defunct Peninsula Volunteer Ambulance Corps.

Area hospitals are Peninsula Hospital Center (H37), Saint Johns Episcopal Hospital (H40, AKA Saint Johns of "the Rock" to differentiate with Saint Johns of "the Boulevard", which is central Queens county), Trauma Centers at Jamaica Hospital (H34), Mary "inaccurate," oops, Mary Immaculate, and Brookdale Hospitals. Burn Centers are either New York/Cornell, in Manhattan, or, surprisingly, Nassau University Medical Center (still referred to as Nassau County Medical Center, or (pronounced) NicMic, for the initials of NCMC), which is also a Trauma Center, in Uniondale, Nassau County.

For the uninformed, FDNY EMS serves Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn (Kings), Queens, and Staten Island (Richmond) Counties, also referred to as "Boroughs".

[RedZone]

Ah. I've been to them all, but the last time I was in Peninsula or St John's Episcopal was in the mid-90's when I still worked for TrashCan, I mean TransCare (not exactly the same company as the one out there now, only the paintjob is the same).

No longer familiar with that area anymore. Last time I even passed thru the rock was when I dated a girl in LI, which turned out to be just too much of a hassle to get to.