The American Heart Association presents WPH the Mission: Lifeline EMS Gold Achievement Award for implementation of quality care for severe heart attack patients.
White Plains, NY. (September 3, 2021) – White Plains Hospital, a leader in cardiac care in Westchester County, has received the American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline® Gold Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures to treat patients who suffer severe heart attacks.
Each year, more than 250,000 people experience an ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI),the deadliest type of heart attack, caused by a blockage of blood flow to the heart that requires timely treatment. To prevent death, it is critical to restore blood flow as quickly as possible, either by mechanically opening the blocked vessel using a balloon or by providing clot-busting medication. Among the criteria is “door-to-balloon time.” At White Plains Hospital, this is under one hour, significantly less than the recommended guidelines of 90 minutes. Other criteria include how fast the patient receives an ECG, medications given at discharge, and cardiac rehab referrals for inpatients.
The American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline program helps reduce barriers to prompt treatment for heart attacks – starting from when 9-1-1 is called, to EMS transport and continuing through hospital treatment and discharge. Optimal care for heart attack patients takes coordination between the individual hospital, EMS and healthcare system.
“EMTs and paramedics play a vital part in the system of care for those who have heart attacks,” said Tim Henry, M.D., chair of the Mission: Lifeline Acute Coronary Syndrome Subcommittee. “Since they often are the first medical point of contact, they can save precious minutes of treatment time by activating the emergency response system that alerts hospitals to an incoming heart attack patient.”
Program participants apply for the award recognition by demonstrating how their organization has committed to improving quality care for STEMI patients.
“This recognition underscores the lifesaving collaboration – between our EMS colleagues, our Emergency Department, and our cardiac experts in the catheterization lab – to deliver only the quickest, safest, most advanced care during a heart attack,” says Dr. Dimitrios Bliagos, Director of Interventional Cardiology at White Plains Hospital. “This is one part of our full spectrum of expert cardiac care – but one of the most important parts. Our patients can trust that we have the experts, equipment and guidelines in place to give them the best possible chance of survival.”
About White Plains Hospital
White Plains Hospital is a proud member of the Montefiore Health System, serving as its tertiary hub of advanced care in the Hudson Valley. The Hospital is a 292-bed not-for-profit health care organization with the primary mission of providing exceptional acute and preventive medical care to all people who live in, work in or visit Westchester County and its surrounding areas. Centers of Excellence include the Center for Cancer Care, The William & Sylvia Silberstein Neonatal & Maternity Center and The Ruth and Jerome A. Siegel Stroke Center. The Hospital’s Flanzer Emergency Department is the busiest in Westchester County, with more than 64,000 patient visits a year. White Plains Hospital performs lifesaving emergency and elective angioplasty in its Joan and Alan Herfort, MD, Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory and Marie Promuto Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory. White Plains Hospital has outpatient medical facilities across Westchester, including multispecialty practices in Armonk, New Rochelle, Somers and Yorktown Heights; and Scarsdale Medical Group locations in Harrison and Scarsdale.
The Hospital is fully accredited by the Joint Commission and earned its recognition as a Top Performer for Key Quality Measures® in 2015 and 2013. The Hospital received Magnet® designation in 2012 and 2016 from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). The Hospital earned a three-year accreditation from the National Accreditation Program for Rectal Cancer (NAPRC), one of 16 hospitals in the nation, and the Hospital's Bariatric Surgical Center is accredited as a Comprehensive Center under the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program (MBSAQIP). White Plains Hospital has also received full accreditation for its breast cancer program from the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC) and The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP®) recognized White Plains Hospital as a top 10% performing hospital for achieving meritorious outcomes for surgical patient care in 2019. In 2021, White Plains Hospital received the Outstanding Patient Experience Award from Healthgrades® for the sixth time and was the only Hospital in Westchester to be awarded with an A Safety Grade from the Leapfrog Group for the 5th consecutive time.
https://www.wphospital.org/about/affiliations-accreditations-awards