Every day Artie comes to work with a smile and a “How can I help?” attitude. On this specific day, he was in triage training a new nurse and triaging a patient. Artie was alerted by registration that a patient was being checked in for chest pain. Artie excused himself from his stabled triage patient to lay eyes on the patient that registration had called about. Artie immediately realized the patient was not okay and brought the patient to a room. He proceeded to perform an EKG and with the doctor determined the patient was having a STEMI.

We do not have a cath lab at this hospital, so working together with the primary nurse, charge nurse, and ED tech, transportation was arranged. Artie placed an IV line and obtained labs. The patient arrived and was taken via ambulance to Skagit’s cath lab in 24 minutes. Artie’s ability to recognize a sick patient and his quick action provided this patient with a rapid turnaround of only 24 minutes. His bedside manner focuses on safety and his “How can I help?” attitude increases morale in the work environment.