Chong S. Park, MD
There is a large risk of death and disability from STEMI, which is why a coordinated, rapid response is so critical to saving these patients’ lives.
JEFFERSON HILLS, PA (PRWEB) December 21, 2016
Jefferson Hospital, part of Allegheny Health Network (AHN), has received an accreditation and honors that recognize its commitment to and skill in treating patients who suffer the most severe kind of heart attack, known as an ST-elevation myocardial infarction or STEMI.
The American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline® STEMI Accreditation program named Jefferson a Mission: Lifeline Heart Attack Receiving Center through July 2019. Jefferson is the first and only hospital in western Pennsylvania to earn this accreditation. Additionally, the American College of Cardiology tabbed Jefferson a winner of the NCDR ACTION Registry—Get With The Guidelines™ (GWTG) Platinum Performance Achievement Award for 2016 for implementing certain quality improvement measures for the treatment of severe heart attacks.
“There is a large risk of death and disability from STEMI, which is why a coordinated, rapid response is so critical to saving these patients’ lives,” said Chong S. Park, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Jefferson Hospital and Medical Director of the AHN Cardiovascular Institute at Jefferson Hospital. “It is the most dangerous of all heart attacks because STEMI means there is complete artery blockage. Every year, more than a quarter-million people suffer a STEMI. It is crucial to restore blood flow to the heart as quickly as possible.”
The AHA launched Mission: Lifeline in 2007 with the goal of improving patient outcomes by breaking down the obstacles that prevented patients from having access to and receiving the right treatments. The Mission: Lifeline system starts with the initial 9-1-1 call or the patient’s first contact with the emergency system and continues into the hospital’s cardiac catheterization lab and through discharge. For hospitals to earn this accreditation, they must meet standards for prompt, appropriate heart attack treatment. That includes offering 24/7 percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), better known as angioplasty, a non-surgical procedure used to open narrow or blocked arteries.
Jefferson’s Mission: Lifeline accreditation comes on the heels of the hospital earning the Platinum Performance Achievement Award for the National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR) ACTION Registry – GWTG program. Jefferson is one of just 223 hospitals across the country to receive the honor.
“This award recognizes our success in applying a higher standard of care for heart attack patients,” said Louise Urban, President and CEO, Jefferson Hospital. “It also speaks volumes about our commitment to reaching an aggressive goal in treating STEMI patients with standard levels of care from the ACC and AHA. This means we are saving lives and improving the outcomes for our heart attack patients.”
To receive the Platinum Performance Achievement Award, Jefferson consistently followed the ACTION Registry—GWTG protocol for eight consecutive quarters and met a performance standard of 90 percent for specific performance measures. Full participation in the registry engages hospitals in a robust quality improvement process using data to drive improvements in adherence to guideline recommendations and overall quality of care provided to heart attack patients.
ACTION Registry–GWTG is a partnership between the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association with partnering support from the American College of Emergency Physicians and the Society of Cardiovascular Patient Care. ACTION Registry—GWTG empowers health care provider teams to consistently treat heart attack patients according to the most current, science-based guidelines. It also establishes a national standard for understanding and improving the quality, safety and outcomes of care provided for patients with coronary artery disease, specifically high-risk heart attack patients.
About Allegheny Health Network
Allegheny Health Network, part of Highmark Health, is an integrated healthcare delivery system serving the Western Pennsylvania region. The Network is comprised of eight hospitals, including its flagship academic medical center Allegheny General Hospital, Allegheny Valley Hospital, Canonsburg Hospital, Forbes Hospital, Jefferson Hospital, Saint Vincent Hospital, Westfield Memorial Hospital and West Penn Hospital; a research institute; Health + Wellness Pavilions; an employed physician organization, home and community based health services and a group purchasing organization. The Network employs approximately 17,000 people and has more than 2,800 physicians on its medical staff. The Network also serves as a clinical campus for Temple University School of Medicine, Drexel University College of Medicine and the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine.
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