ABSTRACT
DEVELOPMENT OF THE NETWORK The Krakow Region in Poland encompasses approximately 3.2 million inhabitants in a partially mountainous region, especially to the south (the Tatra Mountains). The region’s capital is Krakow with more than 750,000 people. Until 1999, patients presenting with acute myocardial infarction were treated in the closest local hospital with either thrombolysis (hospitals without cathlab facility on site) or PCI on a daily basis in the Institute of Cardiology in Krakow. In 1999, the Department of Interventional Cardiology, Jagiellonian University Medical College in Krakow, launched a 24/7 PCI service for the population of the Krakow city area for transport delays less than 90 minutes from the diagnosis of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI)—(Zone I; Fig. 1). Ambulance services and seven Krakow non-PCI hospitals were included in this primary network for the treatment of acute MI. Duty days were divided between the two cathlabs operating within the Department of Interventional Cardiology (one in University Hospital and the other in John Paul II Hospital with Dariusz Dudek and Krzysztof Zmudka as their Directors, respectively).
