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Reporter: Kimberly Romo

TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - A recent report published in the American Heart Association's journal, Circulation, shows hospitals across the country are getting faster at performing a lifesaving procedure to patients who have heart attacks. Angioplasties are used to open a blocked or narrow artery in the heart. A five-year study of more than 300,000 patients found that in 2005, the average time it took doctors to perform the angioplasty - from the moment a patient was admitted - was 96 minutes. In 2010, the average was 64 minutes. That's what it is at University Medical Center, where doctors have also reduced their "door-to-balloon time," as they call it. For you and your loved ones, it means a better chance of survival.

During a heart attack, if a blocked artery is not opened quickly, the heart muscle begins to die. Dr. Karl Kern, UA Cardiology Section chief, says, "That's what a heart attack is. It's the death of heart muscle. And once it's dead, it can no longer pump well. You're left with a weakened heart, and sometimes with heart failure." That's why every minute matters. The longer you delay help, the more damage is done. That's why Dr. Kern says getting transported by an ambulance is crucial. "Sometimes a heart attack isn't just classic chest pain. But if they're worried about that, the right thing to do is to call 911 and come in by ambulance to a facility. If you drive yourself, we have data here to show that that alone delays things. It takes a little longer to figure it out, and a little more time to get a diagnosis." All things paramedics can start doing, and relaying to the hospital.

At UMC, patients who come in with these symptoms immediately get placed in a trauma room. If they're comatose, doctors will drop their body temperature before taking them to the cath lab, where they'll open the blocked artery with a balloon, and oftentimes put a stent in to keep it open. It's a combination, doctors say, that gives patients the best chance for survival. Dr. Kern says by doing these two things, they're seeing survival rates of 60%. Up to 90% of those survivors are neurologically okay. By the way, UMC is also a Cardiac Receiving Center - a place that takes care of cardiac arrest patients who have been resuscitated.