Main Line Health recognized by the American Heart Association for its commitment to quality care for heart attacks

Lankenau Medical Center, Bryn Mawr Hospital and Riddle Hospital’s EMS receive the Mission: Lifeline® Gold Plus award and Paoli Hospital and Riddle Hospital receive the Gold Award for rapid, research-based treatment of heart attack patients

Bryn Mawr, PA — Main Line Health’s acute care hospitals have been awarded the American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline® STEMI Receiving Center and Riddle Hospital’s EMS team received the Mission: Lifeline® EMS award for their commitment to offering rapid, research-based care to people experiencing one of the most dangerous types of heart attacks.

Lankenau Medical Center and Bryn Mawr Hospital each received the Gold Plus Award, and Paoli Hospital and Riddle Hospital received the Gold Quality Award, for their care of patients experiencing ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), a form of heart attack caused by a complete blockage in a coronary artery.

Each year, more than 280,000 people in the U.S. experience a STEMI heart attack, and nearly 40% of those who go to the emergency room with acute coronary syndrome are diagnosed with it. Like all heart attacks, STEMI requires timely treatment to restore blood flow as quickly as possible.

“Main Line Health is dedicated to improving the quality of heart care, and the American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline program helps us achieve that goal,” said Jack Lynch, FACHE, President and Chief Executive Officer, Main Line Health. “We are honored to be recognized by the AHA for consistently delivering the highest quality of care to our patients through science-based treatment and care coordination that helps ensure the best opportunity for recovery. The Mission: Lifeline program puts proven knowledge and guidelines to work on a daily basis and translates into giving patients the best possible chance of survival.”

Mission: Lifeline is a national, community-based initiative improving systems of care for patients with STEMI, non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI), stroke and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The program focuses on streamlining processes to speed the delivery of proper treatment for time-sensitive, neuro-cardiovascular disease states.

William Gray, MD, System Chief of Cardiovascular Diseases at Main Line Health and Co-Director of Lankenau Heart Institute, added: “It is an honor for all our teams to be recognized for their dedication and achievements in cardiac care. The AHA’s Mission: Lifeline program is helping us accomplish our goal of improving the quality of care for our patients who suffer heart attacks through nationally established clinical guidelines and benchmarks. We are incredibly proud of our care teams and the work of our EMS providers who are on the front lines, ensuring patients are receiving timely initial diagnoses and treatments even before they reach the hospital so that we can deliver the fastest possible life-saving care.”

"I am extremely proud that our EMS team has been recognized with this award for the critical role they play in caring for those patients who suffer heart attacks,” said Robert P. Girardeau, MSM-HCA, NRP, FP-C, System Director, Pre-Hospital Services & Emergency Medical Services & Patient Transportation Services at Main Line Health. "EMTs and paramedics are often the first medical point of contact and can save precious minutes of treatment time by activating the emergency response system that alerts hospitals to an incoming heart attack patient."

Recognition as a Mission: Lifeline Receiving Center is designed to showcase hospitals that provide 24/7 support for STEMI. These facilities coordinate with a network of referring hospitals and emergency medical services to provide guideline-directed STEMI and NSTEMI care.

The Mission: Lifeline Receiving Center award is earned by hospitals that demonstrate a commitment to treating patients according to the most up-to-date research-based guidelines for STEMI care as outlined by the American Heart Association.

About Mission: Lifeline

Mission: Lifeline® is the American Heart Association's national initiative to advance the system of care for patients with acute, high-risk time sensitive life and/or quality of life-threatening disease states. The overarching goals of Mission: Lifeline are to bring stakeholders together in a collaborative manner and to reduce mortality and morbidity for these patients while improving overall quality of care and patient outcomes. For more information, visit heart.org.