The American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association recognized Athens Regional Medical Center’s quality care of life-threatening heart attack patients by awarding the hospital a prestigious 2015 Mission: Lifeline® Gold Receiving Center award. Athens Regional is one of six hospitals in the state to receive this high recognition.

To qualify for the award, Athens Regional met the requirements of a ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI)-receiving hospital. STEMI refers to any severe heart attack caused by a prolonged period of blocked blood supply to the heart.

A STEMI-receiving hospital, like Athens Regional, is one that has the equipment, expertise and facilities to administer percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), a mechanical means of treating heart attack patients. Although PCI is the preferred means of treating STEMI patients, only 25 percent of hospitals in the United States are equipped to do so.

“This award validates our commitment to the community and to the care of STEMI patients,” Kathi Davis, STAT Heart Coordinator, said.

The award places special emphasis on the need to reduce response time from the initial 9-1-1 call through hospital treatment. Athens Regional was singled out in part because of its efforts to reduce any clerical or system barriers that increase treatment time. 

One of the stringent requirements of this award was that hospitals must maintain a 90 minute or less first medical contact-to-balloon time 75 percent of the time and a 90 minute or less door-to balloon time 90 percent of the time. These door-to-balloon times are critical because permanent heart damage occurs after 90 minutes.

“When we partnered with the American Heart Association for the Mission:Lifeline initiative,  our door-to-balloon time was 85.5 minutes, and it has improved every year since then,” Davis said. “Last calendar year our median door-to-balloon time was down to 47 minutes.”

Mission Lifeline also provides a partnership between smaller hospitals without the equipment and staff to treat STEMI patients and larger receiving hospitals, like Athens Regional. Through Mission Lifeline, this network of hospitals is able to coordinate the transportation of patients to the hospital that can provide them with the best care. Providing this high level of care to STEMI patients is a team effort. 

“It really is all about the team,” Davis said. “The team consists of the community, EMS, non-PCI hospitals and PCI hospital. All of these team members make up your STEMI system of care. The community must be educated about the signs of a heart attack so they will know to alert EMS, EMS must recognize the STEMI,obtain and transmit an EKG, the emergency room staff and physicians must alert the STEMI team – often times before the patient has arrived at the hospital – and non-PCI hospitals must allow EMS to bypass them  to go directly to the PCI capable hospital.” 

Not only does a Gold Receiving Hospital, like Athens Regional, meet the strict standards set by the American Heart Association, it maintains them for at least 24 months.

“The Gold Award is about sustaining the gains we’ve made,” Davis said.