American Heart Association Honors Hospital with Awards

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

The American Heart Association (AHA) recently recognized The Reading Hospital with awards related to its care of Heart Attack, Stroke and Heart Failure.

The Hospital received the AHA's "Get with the Guidelines" awards for treatment of stroke and heart failure and the "Mission Lifeline" award for ST elevation myocardial infarctions (STEMI) heart attacks.
STEMI heart attacks kill more people than any other type of heart attack. A STEMI-type heart attack is characterized by a specific pattern on an EKG and is usually caused by a sudden, complete blockage of one of the heart arteries. The AHA created Mission: Lifeline to respond to missed opportunities for prompt, appropriate STEMI treatment. Recently, Mission: Lifeline expanded to help existing STEMI systems of care incorporate out-of-hospital cardiac resuscitation into their systems.

The Reading Hospital received the Mission: Lifeline Silver designation for meeting or exceeding 85 percent of the AHA's STEMI performance achievement goals for consecutive 90-day intervals, and meeting or exceeding 75 percent of AHA quality measures to improve the quality of care for STEMI patients.

The Reading Hospital received the Get With The Guidelines Stroke Gold Plus Performance Achievement Award for its commitment and success in implementing excellent care for stroke patients, according to evidence-based guidelines.

The AHA Get With The Guidelines Heart Failure Gold Plus Performance Achievement Award signifies that The Reading Hospital met an aggressive goal of 85 percent or higher compliance for at least 24 months in the five CORE performance of care measures AND 75 percent or higher in four other important AHA quality measures for the treatment of patients with heart failure.