Heart Association Recognizes Advocate BroMenn for Cardiac Care
Advocate BroMenn Medical Center recently earned the American Heart Association (AHA)'s "Mission: Lifeline" Silver Performance Achievement Award in recognition of the hospital's commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of cardiac care that effectively improves a patient's survival from the deadliest form of heart attack.
Hospitals that received this award have demonstrated for 12 consecutive months that at least 85 percent of its eligible STEMI (ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction) patients (without contraindications) are treated within 90 minutes of entering the hospital and are discharged following the AHA's recommended treatment guidelines.Currently, 97.1% of BroMenn's STEMI patients receive the necessary treatment within this timeframe.
According to the AHA, almost 400,000 people experience the STEMI type of heart attack every year. Unfortunately, a significant number don't receive prompt reperfusion therapy, which is critical in restoring blood flow. That's why timely access to care is important.
The goal of Mission: Lifeline, a program that helps hospitals and emergency medical services develop systems of care, is to improve care in both acute treatment measures and discharge measures. Often, patients are started on aggressive risk-reduction therapies such as cholesterol-lowering drugs, aspirin, ACE inhibitors and beta-blockers in the hospital and receive smoking cessation counseling before they are discharged.
