Texas Health HEB Recognized with American Heart Association’s
Mission: Lifeline Quality Achievement Award
BEDFORD, TEXAS, Dec. 10, 2014 – Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Hurst-Euless-Bedford has earned the Mission: Lifeline® Silver Receiving Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association for the treatment of patients who suffer severe heart attacks.
Each year in the United States, approximately 250,000 people have a STEMI, or ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, caused by a complete blockage of blood flow to the heart that requires time-sensitive treatment. To prevent loss of life, it’s critical to immediately restore blood flow, either by surgically opening the blocked vessel or by giving clot-busting medication.
The American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline program helps hospitals, emergency medical services and communities improve response times so people who suffer from a STEMI receive prompt, appropriate treatment. The program’s goal is to streamline systems of care to quickly get heart attack patients from the first 9-1-1 call to hospital treatment.
Along with Texas Health HEB, Texas Health Resources hospitals in Arlington, Denton, Fort Worth and Plano earned recognition.
“At Texas Health HEB, we are dedicated to improving the quality of care for our patients who suffer a heart attack, and the American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline program is helping us accomplish that goal through internationally respected clinical guidelines,” said Deborah Paganelli, FACHE, hospital president. “We are pleased to be recognized for our dedication and achievements in cardiac care, and I am very proud of our team.”
Texas Health HEB earned the award by meeting specific criteria and standards of performance for the quick and appropriate treatment of STEMI patients to open the blocked artery. Before patients are discharged, they 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. Eligible hospitals must adhere to these measures at a set level for a designated period to receive the awards. Silver awardees met rigorous criteria during four calendar quarters.
“We commend Texas Health HEB for this achievement award, which reflects a significant institutional commitment to improve the quality of care for their heart attack patients,” said A. Gray Ellrodt, M.D., chair of the Mission: Lifeline committee and chief of medicine at the Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, Mass.
Texas Health Resources and the physicians on the medical staff, working through the systemwide Heart & Vascular Council, share a vision of making North Texas the vanguard of quality heart care for the state. Composed of cardiac care specialists and Texas Health administrators, the Council works so that all patients in the system’s service area will receive the same quality care, regardless of their location.