In 2004, Bob Newland had a major heart attack, which was treated via a triple bypass.

As a rural victim of a heart attack, Newland counts himself lucky to be alive - mortality and morbidity rates for heart attack are much higher in rural southern Ohio than the rest of the state. After his return to work as the EMS liaison at Adena Regional Medical Center, he hoped to make improvements in care for rural chest pain patients.

Through his position at Adena, Newland assisted in initiating a study which would expand 12-lead EKG training to basic and intermediate EMTs instead of just paramedics, and provide equipment to transmit the EKG results from the squad to the hospital prior to the patient’s arrival.

The results from the 2006 yearlong study had 90 12-lead EKGs of chest pain patients transmitted to the hospital. Out of 90, five patients were diagnosed with ST elevated myocardial infarction -a major heart attack -prior to arrival, which allowed staff to prepare the cath lab and begin treatment upon arrival.

Newland and emergency department physician Dr. Brad Cotton have taken the results to two national conferences in hopes of seeing a change in EMS regulations to allow more EMTs to perform a 12-lead EKG.

“I really have high hopes for this program because since we started this program, I made it a goal,” Newland said.

Since the conferences, North Carolina and Wisconsin have made a change based on the study’s results. As of May 29, Ohio will follow suit to allow basic and intermediate EMTs to perform the test. The change could have a huge impact on Ross County, where only 20 percent of EMTs are paramedics, which means they have completed at least 1,000 hours of training. Basic EMTs have had 130 hours of training and intermediates 190 hours of training.

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