Cheyenne Regional Medical Center Receives American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline® Gold Quality Achievement Award

July 20, 2015

Award demonstrates Cheyenne Regional’s commitment to quality care for heart attack patients.

Cheyenne, WY—Cheyenne Regional Medical Center has received the Mission: Lifeline^® Gold Receiving Quality Achievement Award for implementing prompt, evidence-based care for patients experiencing severe heart attacks.

Mission: Lifeline is a program of the American Heart Association. Its goal is to reduce barriers to quick treatment for heart attacks, beginning with the 9-1-1 call and continuing through hospital treatment.

Mission: Lifeline recognizes referring hospitals, receiving hospitals and emergency medical services agencies for their success in using Mission: Lifeline criteria to improve quality of care for heart attack patients. Mission: Lifeline provides three levels of recognition: gold, silver and bronze. Eligible hospitals must adhere to the program’s measures at a set level for a designated period to receive an award.

“Cheyenne Regional Medical Center is 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 nationally respected clinical guidelines,” said cardiologist Muhammad Khan, MD, medical director of cardiovascular care at CRMC. “We are pleased to be recognized for our dedication and achievements in cardiac care, and I am very proud of our team.”

CRMC earned the gold recognition by meeting specific Mission: Lifeline criteria and standards of performance for the quick and appropriate treatment of patients having STEMI heart attacks. A STEMI, or ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, is caused by a complete blockage of blood flow to the heart.

Each year in the United States, approximately 250,000 people have a STEMI. To prevent death, it’s critical to immediately restore blood flow, either by surgically opening the blocked vessel or by giving clot-busting medication.

One of the criteria for earning the gold award is for a hospital to have a “door-to-device” time of 90 minutes or less at least 85 percent of the time.

The American College of Cardiology recommends less than 90 minutes for “door-to-balloon” time, the time between a patient arriving at the emergency department and when a balloon device is inflated in the blocked vessel. CRMC has an average door-to-balloon time of about 55 minutes for treating STEMI patients.

“We commend Cheyenne Regional Medical Center for this achievement award, which reflects a significant institutional commitment to the highest quality of care for their heart attack patients,” said James G. Jollis, MD, chair of the Mission: Lifeline Advisory Working Group and president of the North Carolina Chapter of the American College of Cardiology. “Achieving this award means the hospital has met specific reporting and achievement measures for the treatment of their patients who suffer heart attacks and we applaud them for their commitment to quality and timely care.”

“Cheyenne Regional Medical Center has been working for several years to implement the Mission: Lifeline guidelines for treating heart attack patients—from the time the first responder arrives on the scene, during transport by ambulance and once the patient arrives in our emergency department. As a result, there is now a good system in place in Cheyenne and throughout southeastern Wyoming to ensure that heart attack patients receive high-quality as well as prompt and consistent care,” Dr. Khan said.

About Mission: Lifeline

The American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline program helps hospitals and emergency medical services develop systems of care that follow proven standards and procedures for STEMI patients. The program works by mobilizing teams across the continuum of care to implement American Heart Association / American College of Cardiology Foundation clinical treatment guidelines.  For more information, visit heart.org/missionlifeline and heart.org/quality