JONESBORO - St. Bernards Medical Center has received the Mission: Lifeline® Receiving Center GOLD PLUS Quality Achievement Award for treatment of patients who suffer severe heart attacks.
It is the only hospital in Arkansas that has earned the American Heart Association Mission: Lifeline® Receiving Center GOLD PLUS Level Recognition Award. And it is the first hospital in the state ever to receive that recognition for two consecutive years.
The award was presented to physicians at a press conference at St. Bernards by Cammi Marti, Arkansas director of the American Heart Association.
It acknowledges the medical center’s continuing commitment to and success in implementing the highest standards of care for heart attack patients based on data for the 2015 calendar year. Data specifically focus on patients who suffer ST elevation myocardial infarctions (STEMIs), the most deadly type of heart attacks.
Receiving hospitals earn Gold recognition for achieving 85 percent or higher composite adherence and at least 24 consecutive months of 75 percent or higher compliance on all Mission: Lifeline STEMI Receiving Center quality measures.
In addition, the Gold Plus component is earned for achieving at least 75 percent compliance of these measures in STEMI patients that are transferred to St. Bernards from other facilities or first responders.
Because St. Bernards received the Gold Plus recognition, it was listed in the U.S. News & World Report “Best Hospitals” issue published in July.
Through a specialized protocol for patients with STEMIs, the St. Bernards heartcare team has been able to reduce the number of deaths from heart attacks and improve outcomes.
Patients with STEMIs are identified by a unique pattern on EKGs. Through the St. Bernards Delta Ridge STEMI Network, hospital emergency departments and first responders throughout Northeast Arkansas have been trained to identify STEMIs and to expedite the transfer of patients for life-saving care.
The national gold standard is to have the blocked arteries opened within 90 minutes of the time a patient from the immediate Jonesboro area is seen by a healthcare professional.
This is the fourth year St. Bernards has received a Mission: Lifeline® award – and the second year it has been the only hospital in the state to receive the Gold Plus award.