Mercy Medical Center receives American Heart Association Mission: Lifeline Gold Quality Achievement Award for Heart Attack Care

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Tags: Mercy Medical Center , health care

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Mercy Medical Center has received the American Heart Association Mission: Lifeline® Gold Quality Achievement Award. The award recognizes Mercy Medical Center’s commitment and success in implementing the highest standard of care for heart attack patients.

Each year in the United States, nearly 300,000 people have a STEMI, or ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, the most severe form of heart attack. A STEMI occurs when a blood clot completely blocks an artery to the heart. To prevent death, it’s critical to immediately restore blood flow, either by surgically opening the blocked vessel or by giving clot-busting medication.

Hospitals involved in Mission: Lifeline are part of a system that makes sure STEMI patients get the right care they need, as quickly as possible. Mission: Lifeline focuses on improving the system of care for these patients and at the same time improving care for all heart attack patients.

As a “STEMI Receiving Hospital,” Mercy Medical Center meets high standards of performance in quick and appropriate treatment of STEMI patients to open the blocked artery. Before they are discharged, patients are started on aggressive risk reduction therapies such as cholesterol-lowering drugs, aspirin, ACE inhibitors and beta-blockers and they receive smoking cessation counseling if needed. Hospitals must adhere to these guideline-based measures at a set level for a designated period of time to be eligible for the achievement awards.

“Mercy Medical Center is dedicated to making our cardiac unit among the best in the country, and the American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline program is helping us accomplish that by making it easier for our professionals to improve the outcomes of our cardiac patients,” said Ahmed Sabe, M.D., executive director of Mercy Cardiovascular Institute (MCI) and Mercy Heart Center. “We are pleased to be recognized for our dedication and achievements in cardiac care, and I am very proud of our team.”

“The care our patients receive at Mercy Medical Center is our number one priority,” said Thomas E. Cecconi, FACHE, president and CEO at Mercy Medical Center. “We congratulate our physicians and nurses for working to close the gaps that separate patients from timely access to appropriate treatments.”