Everybody knows February means Valentine’s Day, but it’s also American Heart Month. To mark the occasion, St. Tammany Health System Chest Pain Coordination Jeff Meyers – the man behind the health system’s designation as an Accredited Chest Pain Center – paid a visit to The Lake 94.7-FM studios to talk all about tickers.
Listen in to his conversation with host Charles Dowdy the embedded audio player below or on The Lake website. You can also find a transcript of their appearance below, edited lightly for length and readability.
Charles Dowdy: Jeff Meyers is here. … Give me a little bit more background on who you are and what you do.
Jeff: I am Jeff Meyers. I am the chest pain coordinator for St. Tammany Health System. I have been in this role going on the last five years. I did Cath Lab for 20 years.
Charles: Where did you grow up? Around here?
Jeff: Metairie. I am a Metairie boy.
Charles: And how did you find yourself doing this, drawn to working with people’s hearts?
Jeff: I wanted to be a doctor at first – I wanted to be a neurosurgeon – but after 14 years of maybe going to school, I said no. I don’t want to do that. Too long of a track.
Charles: So, you found this.
Jeff: Yes.
Charles: And exactly what do you do? I mean, your title is pretty self-explanatory, but talk to me a little bit more about what you do for St. Tammany Health System.
Jeff: So, we are accredited through the ACC, which stands for the American College of Cardiology. We are chest pain accredited. This is a quality improvement program that implements guidelines into best practices in taking care of cardiac patients.
Charles: As far as what you do for patients, it is basically trying to improve the job that St. Tammany does so to speak?
Jeff: Yes sir. So, like I said, I worked in Cath Lab for 20 years, so I am not a hands-on person with the patients, but what I do is that I abstract all the patients that come in with having a heart attack, from admit to discharge and everything in between. And we have to follow certain protocols and guidelines and for us to do that, that is why we are accredited.
Charles: So, my kids, when they were in the house – they’re gone now – if I had a dollar for every time, I said you are going to give me a heart attack. Could they? Could they really give me a heart attack?
Jeff: Well, if you are under a lot of stress, yes sir.
Charles: I feel like, in my world right now, yeah, I feel like I am under stress. I feel like I am managing it. So, where does that leave me? In other words, a stressful life: Does it really lead to a heart attack?
Jeff: It could. There are many signs and symptoms, such as, like, I said, stress. You could have chest pain, you could have arm pain, you could have sweating, diaphoresis. … And the risk factors: Who you were born to? Like, if you mom or your dad or grandparents had heart disease, you are prone to it. Doesn’t mean you are necessarily going to have it, but you are prone to it.
Charles: I want to go back through those risk factors, and especially the pain thing. I know enough to know that the mind is pretty powerful, so, in and of itself, you have a little twitch in your chest and your mind’s like, “Oh, gosh. Here we go.” Maybe that is right and maybe it is not.
Jeff: Correct. … Most men have the crushing chest pain, right in the middle of the chest going to both arms. Women, they tend to have a GI or more of a stomach upset – kind of like not feeling good. So, I am not saying every time you have that you need to come to the Emergency Room, but if you truly think you are definitely having a heart attack, having all those crushing symptoms, call 911. Don’t drive yourself. Call 911.
Charles: And then as far as making things better for ourselves: Diet, exercise – is that the best?
Jeff: Yes, it is. If you would have any of those symptoms, you would come to the emergency room. If not, get an appointment with a cardiologist. He or she, they could start with basic tests and move up to maybe a stress test. Maybe having what is called a CTA. And then if need be, having an angiogram.
Charles: The stress test; I’ve had one of those. That’s not a big deal. You just get on a treadmill and go.
Jeff: Correct, but if you have a stress test and they find something a little peculiar with the heart muscle itself –
Charles: You might take the next step.
Jeff: Yes.
Charles: You have been at St. Tammany for a little bit. So why have you stayed? Why haven’t you moved around?
Jeff: I am not just saying this because I work there. It really is the best place to be. It is family. You feel you are part of the family. I just enjoy that.
Charles: You were in the situation where you kind of stepped into an emergency.
Jeff: Yes, one of my colleagues in the office next to me, they had an incident where – I really can’t go into detail but there was an incident, we had to call a rapid response. All of the players came: Doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists were able to respond to her emergency, get her to the emergency room and do all the necessary tests. She is doing better now.
Tim: Really, it is because of what you do every single day you know how to get her the help she needed, right? I mean, we have all kinds of accreditations. It’s staggering the amount of stuff St. Tammany is recognized for in this area.
Jeff: That’s right. With our accreditation we wound up getting the silver award through the NCBR, which is part of the ACC, the American College of Cardiology. The door-to-balloon time nationwide benchmark is 90 minutes. For 2021, our door-to-balloon time – in other words, … once the patient gets into the Cath Lab and the doctor goes ahead and opens up the blockage to restore blood flow – it was 50 minutes.
Charles: Wow. All right, well this has been very enlightening. Thank you very much for the visit today Jeff. I hope you will come back, and we appreciate the work you do.
Jeff: Yes sir.
Tim: Jeff, we have a web page that we want to send some folks to at sttammany.health//chestpaincenter. Also, just a quick wrap up from last week: A big shout out to my friends Anne Pablovich and Kelli Rabalais, who were talking about our Be Well, Stay Well event. We have gotten a really nice response from the community. There are still some beds still available; if you want to learn more about it just visit us at bewellstaywell.health.
Charles: All right, thank you both for the visit. I hope you both be well and stay well, and we will talk to you again real soon.