Baptist Health Paducah heart attack care receives national performance award again

May 30, 2018

Heart attack treatment at Baptist Health Paducah was recently recognized among the nation's best by the American College of Cardiology for the sixth year.

Heart attack treatment at Baptist Health Paducah was recently recognized among the nation’s best by the American College of Cardiology for the sixth year.

Baptist Health is one of only 203 hospitals nationwide to receive the NCDR® (National Cardiovascular Data Registry) ACTION Registry Platinum Performance Achievement Award. The award recognizes the hospital’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients as outlined by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association clinical guidelines and recommendations.

To receive the award, the hospital followed treatment guidelines for eight consecutive quarters and has performed at the top level of standards 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 Platinum Performance Award recipient, Baptist Health Paducah has shown it is a leader in implementing standards of care and protocols for its patients,” said Deepak L. Bhatt, MD, MPH, FACC, Chair, ACTION Registry; Executive Director of Interventional Cardiovascular Programs, Brigham and Women’s Hospital Heart and Vascular Center; and Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School. “By meeting the requirements set forth in the registry and establishing a culture of providing guideline-recommended therapy, Baptist Health  is saving lives and improving outcomes of heart attack patients.”

The Center for Disease Control estimates more than 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.

ACTION 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.