HAMMOND | When it comes to chest pain, every minute counts.

"The saying is ‘speed equals myocardium,' " said Eric Cook, associate emergency room director at St. Margaret Mercy Heathcare Centers.

"For a heart attack patient, the faster you get somebody's blood vessel open the more heart muscle you preserve. The quicker they get definitive care, the better the outcome for the patient."

The Hammond Campus announced this week its designation as a Chest Pain Center, which is a protocol officials say provides a more timely and effective treatment for heart attack patients. The center is a collaborative effort between the cardiology and emergency departments. Sophisticated diagnostic equipment shows whether a patient is having a heart attack

The hospital was accredited by the Ohio-based Society of Chest Pain Centers after a stringent on-site review.

Heart attacks stop blood flow to a portion of the heart.

"Anything downstream of that blockage is irreversibly damaged after a period of time," Cook added. "If you don't get the vessel open then the muscle doesn't come back."

Damaged heart muscle can result in chronic shortness of breath, congestive heart failure, cardiomyopathy, and arrhythmia.

Cook said many recent advancements are time-dependent. For example, studies show that for every minute of delay that occurs in performing an angioplasty, the worse the morbidity and mortality a year later, he said.

The protocol begins with a call to 911. Hammond's emergency medical services personnel have been trained to perform EKGs in the ambulances.

In five minutes, the information can be given to ER personnel, who can contact the catheterization lab and cardiologist before the patient's arrival.

The universal measure for "door-to-balloon" time, getting the vessel open, should be 90 minutes or less, Cook said. Many hospitals report about 20 to 30 percent of patients have vessels opened in that period of time.

About 70 percent of St. Margaret heart patients meet the 90-minutes-or-less measure. Cook said the last two patients had their vessels opened in 62 minutes.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and kills about 600,000 Americans annually,