Richmond Ambulance Authority Receives its Second Consecutive Mission: Lifeline Gold Award for Rapid Treatment of Heart Attacks

Richmond, Va. – RAA has received an American Heart Association Mission: Lifeline Gold Award for the second year in a row for its excellence in rapidly treating heart attack patients and improving patient outcomes.  Every year, more than 250,000 people experience a STEMI, or ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction, a type of heart attack caused by a blockage of blood flow to the heart requiring timely treatment. To prevent death, restoration of blood flow as quickly as possible is critical.  This is accomplished either by surgically opening the blocked vessel or by giving clot-busting medication. The role of EMS in the system-of-care for these patients is crucial and often sets the course for the patient's outcome. Since EMTs and paramedics are often the first medical point of contact, they can save precious minutes of life-saving treatment time by calling a STEMI Alert to the participating hospital, thus triggering an early response from the hospital’s STEMI Center. Mission: Lifeline strives to equip first responders with the most up-to-date evidence-based treatment guidelines to help improve quality of care for patients and to improve systems of care and patient outcomes in communities across the U.S. RAA had to achieve a number of measures outlined by the American Heart Association to achieve gold award level status.  This includes ensuring a minimum of 75% of its STEMI patients arrived at the hospital and received definitive treatment...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Administration and Leadership Industry News Source Type: news