If a heart attack patient is admitted to one of these spoke hospitals, he or she will be immediately transferred upon establishing diagnosis of  a heart attack to a hub hospital. A hub hospital usually has a cardiac catheterization facility to perform primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI). This treatment involves a minor surgical procedure whereby a thin wire with an expandable balloon tip is inserted into one of the major arteries of the body and is directed into the blocked blood vessel (coronary artery) in the heart. The balloon is then inflated (angioplasty) to open up the blockage and widening the narrowed or occluded artery. A metallic scaffold (stent) is then inserted at the location of the narrowed or occluded  in order to restore and maintain adequate blood flow to the heart. This whole procedure takes approximately 30 minutes to 1 hour and have been proven in numerous studies to improve survival rates as well as to reduce long-term morbidity.