South Georgia Media Center has received the American College of Cardiology’s NCDR Chest Pain ̶ MI Registry Silver Performance Achievement Award for 2021. SGMC is the only hospital in the region and among only eight in the state of Georgia and 132 nationwide to receive the honor.
The award recognizes SGMC’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients and signifies that SGMC 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.
SGMC has demonstrated sustained achievement in the Chest Pain-MI Registry for four consecutive quarters during 2020 and performed with distinction in specific performance measures. Participation in the registry encourages hospitals to use their data to drive improvements in adherence to guideline recommendations and overall quality of care provided to heart attack patients. The Chest Pain-MI Registry also 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.
“We have implemented patient-centered strategies with many disciplines in order to meet the criteria for this award,” states Dr. Doug Luke, Chief of Cardiology at SGMC. “The cardiovascular team, which includes cardiologists, cardiac surgeons and mid-level providers, have contributed to this achievement. The Hospitalist group, private medical physicians, and nursing staff from all areas, as well as cardiac rehab services, cath lab and outpatient cath lab prep and recovery staff, EPIC team, and medical records staff have all been vital to our successes. Our NCDR data abstractors have been instrumental in showing us our strengths, and where we have room for improvements that will benefit our patients. We are excited to receive this recognition of our collective work, and look forward to continuing to improve heart attack care for this community.”
The Centers for Disease Control estimates that almost 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.
SGMC’s Dasher Heart Center offers an extensive heart and vascular program with seven cardiologists, three cardiothoracic surgeons and a vascular surgeon. SGMC has also been recognized by the American Heart Association with the 2020 Get with the Guidelines Gold award for inpatient hospital resuscitation.