Weatherford Regional Medical Center:
Saving minutes and saving lives locally in its heart and vascular center.
Increased community demand brings more facilities to our local hospital.
BY MELISSA MOORMAN
FEBRUARY 2016
PA R K E R C O U N T Y T O D AY
The difference between 90 minutes
and 60 minutes doesn’t seem like
much until you are awaiting care
during a heart attack. The national
goal of a heart patient from their door
to treatment is 90 minutes, but at
Weatherford Regional Medical Center (WRMC) they are averaging well
under an hour. The hospital opened
its Heart and Vascular Center with a
catheterization laboratory in 2012.
Because of the demand by the community, WRMC has continued to add
services and cardiac staff to better aid
patients living in Parker County and
surrounding areas. Even more exciting
will be the opening of a second cath-
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Photos by Steve Schillio
eterization laboratory at the end of
February, just in time for the hospital
to celebrate National Heart Month.
The addition by WRMC will not
only assist doctors with diagnosing
problems in a patient’s heart, but it
can also provide additional solutions
that have not been available locally
before.
The hospital began 24-7 cardiology call in October of 2014 — patients who are experiencing a heart
attack are no longer automatically
transferred to Fort Worth. WRMC
partners with local EMS/Lifecare so
that the emergency medical personnel
can administer a full 12-point EKG
on a patient at their location and then
transfer the information to the on-call
cardiologist at the hospital to immediately identify patients and diagnose
acute cardiac needs prior to arrival at
the medical center.
One of the beneficiaries of the
catheterization lab and the skills of
cardiologists and staff at WRMC is
Virgil Polk. A resident of Graham,
Polk was working in Weatherford at
the end of October 2015. He was
finished working for the day and was
on his way out to dinner with his wife
when he told her he wasn’t feeling
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