Cloquet physician receives award for improving heart attack care

Cloquet family practice physician Dr. Ken Ripp has received the 2010 STEMI Award from Essentia Health, formerly SMDC, for the role he has played in improving heart attack care in the region.

Dr. Ripp, a physician at Raiter Clinic and chief of emergency services at Community Memorial Hospital in Cloquet, along with the Emergency Department staff at the hospital have worked closely with Essentia and St. Luke’s Hospital to reduce the amount of time it takes to get a patient from a community hospital to the Cardiac Cath lab for stent placement that opens arteries to increase blood flow and limit heart damage. For optimal results and to save as much heart muscle as possible, the Minnesota statewide goal that has been set is to get the patient from arrival at the Emergency Department to having opened arteries at the Cath lab within 90 minutes.

Over the past three years, the CMH Emergency Department staff has had intense and ongoing education provided by Essentia Health that has been critical in achieving that 90-minute goal in almost all STEMI patients that have come into the Emergency Department. The staff has been recognized by Essentia for their excellent transfer times.

“The award was a very nice surprise,” said Dr. Ripp. “It shows that in a small community hospital you can play an important role and create change for the benefit of patients.”

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