ABSTRACT
The Continuous Improvement of a Lifesaving Innovation One day in 2008, a man named Greg woke in the middle of the night with intense pain in his chest. Greg recalled, “Much like someone is standing on your chest, you know at that point you’re having a heart attack.” After arriving at Franciscan St. Francis Hospital, he remembers, “My whole body was shaking. I was thinking … I may not make it. I remember saying goodbye to my wife … and lots of tears … and pain.” After receiving a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) well within the critical first 90 minutes, a procedure that opens an artery that feeds the heart
muscle, he lived to talk about his experience. “My life was saved purely by the quick work of the heart physicians,” he said.1
