Table 2. Hospital-Specified Reasons for Delay From First Medical Contact to Device by Mode of Presentation.
| Reasons | Patients, No. (%) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EMS arrival | Walk in | Transfer | All | |
| Cardiac arrest and/or need for intubation | 5417 (9.5) | 1197 (3.7) | 1182 (4.7) | 7796 (6.8) |
| Other reasons not specifieda | 3608 (6.3) | 1729 (5.3) | 1338 (5.3) | 6675 (5.8) |
| Difficulty crossing the culprit lesion | 2238 (3.9) | 1291 (4.0) | 874 (3.5) | 4403 (3.8) |
| Difficult vascular access diseaseb | 1554 (2.7) | 743 (2.3) | 565 (2.3) | 2862 (2.5) |
| Need for additional PPE for suspected or confirmed infectious diseasec | 746 (3.2) | 394 (3.2) | 255 (2.5) | 1395 (3.0) |
| Patient delays in providing consent | 576 (1.0) | 225 (0.7) | 160 (0.6) | 961 (0.8) |
| Emergent placement of LV support deviced | 562 (1.3) | 207 (0.8) | 190 (1) | 959 (1.1) |
| One or more reasons for delay | 13 175 (23.0) | 5234 (16.1) | 4171(16.6) | 22 580 (19.7) |
Abbreviations: EMS, emergency medical services; LV, left ventricular; PPE, personal protective equipment.
The other reasons category was not defined within the database. The main purpose of these exclusions was to allow for consistency of cohorts across hospitals.
Delay in percutaneous coronary intervention due to difficulty in passing catheters to the coronary artery ostia through available arterial access points including radial and femoral arteries.
The need for additional PPE for suspected or confirmed infectious disease only included individuals after the second quarter of 2020. This field refers to specific additional measures that delayed treatment, primarily related to cardiac catheterization laboratory delays.
The emergent placement of LV support device included individuals after the first quarter of 2019 since this variable started in 2019.