Kansas City— St. Joseph Medical Center has earned the American College of Cardiology’s NCDR ACTION Registry–GWTG Platinum Performance Achievement Award for 2014. St. Joseph is one of only 256 hospitals nationwide to receive the honor.
The award recognizes St. Joseph’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients and signifies that it has reached an aggressive goal of treating these patients to standard levels of care as outlined by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association clinical guidelines and recommendations.
To receive the ACTION Registry–GWTG Platinum Performance Achievement Award, St. Joseph consistently followed the treatment guidelines in the ACTION Registry–GWTG Premier 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.
“The implementation of these guidelines requires successful coordination of the cardiovascular team and emergency personnel and is a critical step in saving the lives and improving outcomes of heart attack patients in our community,” says Amy Mehaffey, RN, BSN, Regional Director of Cardiovascular Services at the
Carondelet Heart Institute. “It reflects our commitment of caring for some of our most seriously ill patients and their families.”
The Center for Disease Control estimates that over 700,000 Americans suffer a heart attack each year. A heart attack occurs when a blood clot in a coronary artery partially or completely blocks blood flow to the heart muscle. Treatment guidelines include administering aspirin upon arrival and discharge, timely restoration of blood flow to the blocked artery, smoking cessation counseling and cardiac rehabilitation, among others.
St. Joseph Medical Center is a 310-bed hospital providing a wide range of acute care and outpatient services from a 24-hour emergency department to state-of-the-art cardiovascular care. St. Joseph has earned the Magnet designation from The American Nurses Credentialing Center for excellence in nursing. Key services include the Carondelet Heart Institute, Women’s Health Institute and Joint and Spine Institute. Consistent with its mission, St. Joseph provides compassionate, quality healthcare with a special concern for the poor. For more information, visit stjosephkc.com.