Athens, Ga. (August 31, 2020) – Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center has received the American College of Cardiology’s NCDR Chest Pain ̶ MI Registry Gold Performance Achievement Award for 2020, serving as one of only 60 hospitals nationwide to receive the honor.
“Cardiac patient care always has been among our top priorities at Piedmont Athens Regional, and this achievement demonstrates that commitment,” said Robert Sinyard, M.D., chief medical officer (CMO) at Piedmont Athens Regional. “Our multidisciplinary team of experts have worked hard to make this accreditation happen and our patients can rest assured knowing we hold ourselves to a higher standard.”
The award recognizes Piedmont Athens Regional’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients and signifies the hospital has reached the challenging goal of treating these patients to standard levels of care as outlined by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association clinical guidelines and recommendations.
To receive the Chest Pain ̶ MI Registry Gold Performance Achievement Award, hospitals must demonstrate sustained achievement in the Chest Pain ̶ MI Registry for two consecutive years (2018 and 2019), and perform at the top level for specific performance measures. Full participation in the registry engages hospitals in a robust quality improvement process using data to drive improvements in adherence to guideline recommendations and overall quality of care provided to heart attack patients.
“As a Gold Performance Award recipient, Piedmont Athens Regional has established itself as a leader in setting the national standard for improving quality of care in patients with acute myocardial infarction,” said Michael C. Kontos, MD, FACC, chair of the NCDR Chest Pain – MI Registry Steering Subcommittee, Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center. “By meeting the award requirements set forth in the registry, Piedmont Athens Regional has demonstrated a commitment to providing reliable, comprehensive treatment for heart attack patients based on current clinical guideline recommendations.”
The Center for Disease Control estimates that almost 700,000 Americans suffer a heart attack each year. A heart attack occurs when a blood clot in a coronary artery partially or completely blocks blood flow to the heart muscle. Treatment guidelines include administering aspirin upon arrival and discharge, timely restoration of blood flow to the blocked artery, smoking cessation counseling and cardiac rehabilitation, among others.
Chest Pain ̶ MI Registry empowers health care provider teams to consistently treat heart attack patients according to the most current, science-based guidelines and establishes a national standard for understanding and improving the quality, safety and outcomes of care provided for patients with coronary artery disease, specifically high-risk heart attack patients.