Posted: 9/10/2014
Parkland Health & Hospital System has received the American College of Cardiology Foundation’s NCDR® ACTION Registry®–GWTGTM Platinum Performance Achievement Award for 2014 – one of only 256 hospitals nationwide to do so. This is the second consecutive year Parkland has been honored by the Foundation. In 2013, Parkland received a silver award.
The award recognizes Parkland’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients and signifies that Parkland 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 this award, Parkland 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 American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association commend Parkland for its success in implementing standards of care and protocols. The full implementation of acute and secondary prevention guideline-recommended therapy is a critical step in saving the lives and improving outcomes of heart attack patients,” said James Jollis, MD, FACC, ACTION Registry-GWTG Chair and Professor of Medicine and Radiology at Duke University Hospital.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 700,000 Americans suffer a heart attack each year. Last year, Parkland treated 127 heart attack patients.
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.
“This award from ACTION Registry–GWTG is a proud achievement for Parkland and recognizes the hard work of a multidisciplinary team who care for some of our most seriously ill patients and their families,” said Sandeep R. Das, MD, MPH, FACC, FAHA, Director of Acute Coronary Care and Associate Chief Quality and Safety Officer at Parkland Memorial Hospital.
“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.”
For more information on cardiac care at Parkland, visit www.parklandhospital.com/cardiaccare.
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 and 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.