$26.4 million grant helps Minnesota hospitals find life-threatening conditions

The grant announcement took place at Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, which pioneered ER use of ultrasound technology. Rising violence in the mid-1980s resulted in more patients at HCMC with stab wounds to the heart that were difficult to detect unless patients went into cardiac arrest, said Dr. Dave Plummer, an HCMC emergency medicine specialist.

Hennepin Healthcare provided one- or two-day training seminars in the past, but found doctors and other providers still didn’t feel comfortable making diagnostic decisions with the technology back at their hospitals, said Dr. Robert Reardon, an HCMC emergency medicine physician.