Memorial Hospital has received the American College of Cardiology Foundation’s NCDR ACTION Registry–GWTG Platinum Performance Achievement Award for 2012 – one of only 164 hospitals nationwide to do so. The award recognizes Memorial’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients, and signifies that Memorial Hospital has reached an aggressive 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 ACTION Registry–GWTG Platinum Performance Achievement Award, Memorial consistently followed the treatment guidelines in the ACTION Registry–GWTG Premier for eight consecutive quarters and met a performance standard of 90% for specific performance measures. Following these treatment guidelines improves adherence to  ACC/AHA Clinical Guideline recommendations, monitors drug safety and the overall quality of care provided to ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and non- ST- elevation myocardial infarction patients (NSTEMI).

“We are honored to receive this award recognizing the success of our efforts to continuously improve heart care at Memorial,” said Eric H. Conn, MD, FACC, a cardiologist on staff at Memorial. “A heart attack is caused by a blocked artery and it is critical to reopen that artery as fast as possible to preserve heart muscle and reduce the risk of both short and long term complications. The national benchmark for treating heart attack patients, known as “door-to-balloon” time, is 90 minutes from the time a patient arrives at the door of the emergency room until flow in the artery is restored. Memorial’s average time of 45.9 minutes is by far the fastest time in the region and one of the fastest in the nation. To achieve this time requires tremendous teamwork.”

"Memorial has established a collaborative team that includes emergency medical services (EMS) personnel and staff from the patient intake center, the emergency department from both Memorial Hospital and Memorial Hospital Hixson and the cardiac cath lab to ensure that each time a Code STEMI is called it is an "all hands on deck" mentality, said Jodie H. Thompson, RN, MSN, CCRN, CNRN, director of emergency services and EMS and STEMI/chest pain center coordinator at Memorial.  “This has enabled us to trim our average door to balloon time from 75 minutes to 46 minutes in a four year time period.  This has been successful because of the dedicated team members in each of these areas and the constant two way communication to improve each time."

ACTION Registry–GWTG is a partnership between the American College of Cardiology Foundation and the American Heart Association with partnering support from the American College of Emergency Physicians, Society of Chest Pain Centers and the Society of Hospital Medicine. ACTION Registry-GWTG 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 STEMI and NSTEMI patients.