CarolinaEast Medical Center receives American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline Bronze Quality Achievement Award for heart attack care
Award demonstrates CarolinaEast’s commitment to quality care for heart attack patients
CarolinaEast Medical Center has received the American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline® Bronze Receiving Quality Achievement Award. The award recognizes CarolinaEast’s commitment and success in implementing a high standard of care for heart attack patients.
Each year in the United States, nearly 300,000 people have an ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, often called a STEMI, 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,” CarolinaEast 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 guidelines-based measures at a set level for a designated period of time to be eligible for the achievement awards.
“CarolinaEast is dedicated to making our cardiac services and capabilities among the best in the country, and the American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline program is helping us accomplish that by providing information and guidance that allow our physicians and other members of our cardiac services team to improve the outcomes for our cardiac patients,” said Dr. Ronald May, Vice President of Medical Affairs. “We have always been proud of our team and are pleased that their dedication and achievements have been recognized by the American Heart Association.”
Submitted by: Megan McGarvey, Director, Public Relations, CarolinaEast Health System