Baptist Health Hardin among nation's top performing hospitals for treatment of heart attack
ELIZABETHTOWN, KY (Aug. 20, 2024) – Baptist Health Hardin has received the American College of Cardiology’s NCDR Chest Pain ̶ MI Registry Platinum Performance Achievement Award for 2024. It is the third year the hospital has won a NCDR award.
It earned the Chest Pain – MI Registry Silver Award in 2022 and the Gold Award in 2023. Baptist Health Hardin is one of only 259 hospitals nationwide to receive the honor.
The award recognizes Baptist Health Hardin’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients and signifies that Baptist Health Hardin has reached an aggressive goal of treating these patients to standard levels of care as outlined by the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association clinical guidelines and recommendations.
“The NCDR Chest Pain ̶ MI Registry Platinum Performance Achievement Award is the highest level of this award given by the American College of Cardiology,” said Baptist Health Hardin President Robert Ramey. “For Baptist Health Hardin to be one of only 259 hospitals nationwide bestowed with this honor is a testament to our team’s commitment to safety and quality, which result in excellence in cardiac care.”
To receive the Chest Pain – MI Registry Platinum Performance Achievement Award, Baptist Health Hardin has demonstrated sustained achievement in the Chest Pain ̶ MI Registry for two consecutive years (2022 and 2023) and performed at the highest 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.
“It is an honor to award Baptist Health Hardin with the Platinum Performance Award for their valuable national leadership and dedication to meeting comprehensive performance measures in patient care,” said Michael C. Kontos, MD, FACC, chair of the NCDR Chest Pain – MI Registry Steering Subcommittee, and cardiologist at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center. “The receipt of this award indicates that Baptist Health Hardin remains committed to providing top quality, guideline-driven care for heart attack patients. Their success ensures patients are receiving the highest quality cardiovascular care.”
The Centers for Disease Control estimates that over 800,000 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.