St. Mary's Hospital is one of 60 hospitals nationwide to receive from the American College of Cardiology a Gold Award for its standards of cardiology patients' care over the past two years.
The ACC's National Cardiovascular Data Registry Chest Pain (Myocardial Infarction) Gold Achievement Award recognizes hospitals' commitment and success in implementing higher standards of care for heart attack patients and signifies St. Mary's Hospital has reached an aggressive goal of treating these patients at standard levels of care as outlined by the ACC and the American Heart Association, according to an SSM Health news release.
The recognition is evidence of the St. Mary's Hospital team's hard work and commitment to delivering the highest-quality cardiovascular care in the community, said Mike Baumgartner, regional president of SSM Health in Mid-Missouri.
To receive the Chest Pain - MI Registry gold Performance Achievement Award, St. Mary's Hospital demonstrated sustained achievement in the registry for two consecutive years (2019 and 2020) and performed at the top level for specific performance measures, according to the news release. Full participation in the registry engages hospitals in a robust quality improvement process using data to drive improvements to overall quality of care for heart attack patients.
Gold Performance Award recipients establish themselves as leaders in setting a national standard for improving quality of care in patients with acute myocardial infarction, said Michael Kontos, chair of the NCDR Chest Pain MI Registry Steering Subcommittee.
"By meeting the award requirements set forth in the registry," Kontos said in the release, "St. Mary's has demonstrated commitment to providing reliable, comprehensive treatment for heart attack patients based on current clinical guideline recommendations."