Mick Smith, senior regional director Quality and Systems Improvement, American Heart Association, presents the Mission: Lifeline EMS Gold Plus Award to Jason Hatfield, Continuous Quality Improvement Coordinator, REMSA.
The Regional Emergency Medical Services Authority (REMSA) has been awarded the American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline EMS Gold Plus Award for implementing quality improvement measures for the treatment of patients who experience heart attacks.
Last year, REMSA was the first emergency medical services provider in northern Nevada and at that time, the only private EMS provider in the state to achieve the EMS Silver Recognition – the highest award that can be given to an agency for their first application year. This year, REMSA was recognized with a Gold Plus award which is given for achieving 75 percent or higher adherence for 24 months on all Mission: Lifeline EMS quality measures to improve the quality of care for patients who experience heart attacks.
“I am very proud to work with a team of clinical professionals that are continuing their commitment to close the gaps that can keep patients from getting timely access to life-saving treatments,” said Dr. Brad Lee, medical director, REMSA. “Beating the recognition standards, accurately tracking and reporting the outcomes at this level means that our community is getting the highest level of heart attack care available.”
The requirements to achieve the Gold Plus Award were 75 percent compliance in the following core measures. REMSA’s compliance exceeded that standard in both core measures:
• Percentage of patients > 35 years old with a complaint of non-traumatic chest who received a 12 lead ECG- 95.4%
• Percentage of STEMI patients treated and transported to a STEMI receiving facility who received PCI within 90 minutes of first medical contact- 92.2%
• Percentage of patients who showed STEMI on their 12 ECG and it was identified by the paramedic in < 10 minutes of first medical contact- 98.7%
Every year, more than 250,000 people experience a STEMI (a Myocardial Infarction or a heart attack that shows ST elevation on the ECG). Healthcare providers have worked to educate the public to recognize the first signs of a heart attack and to quickly call 9-1-1.
Nationally, hospitals have worked diligently on internal procedures to reduce door to balloon (treatment) time and measure those times because it has been proven that time is muscle – meaning that the longer the heart is deprived of blood flow and oxygen, the more muscle damage or loss it experiences.
Until Mission: Lifeline, there have been no national core measures for the time spent getting the patient to the emergency room door by EMS. These measures now set national benchmarks for EMS which will drive better patient care and improve outcomes.
