eCardioVascular Beat

How Providence hospitals earned the Mission: Lifeline award

Marla Craft, M.S.N., C.N.L., C.E.N.

STEMI coordinator
Providence Heart and Vascular Institute

Providence Portland Medical Center and Providence St. Vincent Medical Center were honored by a bronze award from the American Heart Association’s
Mission: Lifeline program, becoming the only hospitals in Oregon to receive the award. Nationally, 72 organizations earned bronze or silver awards. The recognition is new, so no hospitals were eligible for gold.

The American Heart Association looks at STEMI systems that include emergency medical services, transferring hospitals and receiving hospitals. The goal is to break down the silos that prevent smooth transitions for the patient to treatment. In 2010 our teams exceeded door-to-balloon targets for all quarters.

This is the result of a rigorous attention to quality, starting with the clinical data we collect for in-house and transfer STEMI cases. Interdisciplinary work groups at both Providence St. Vincent and Providence Portland meet monthly to review the information and critically evaluate any cases that fall out of our target door-to-balloon times.

Mission: Lifeline looks for our STEMI system to accomplish first-medical-contact-to-balloon in under 90 minutes.

To meet this goal, we have encouraged collaboration with EMS providers. They attend our work groups; our physicians provide EKG interpretation classes for our medics; and the STEMI coordinator provides feedback on exceptional cases.

Our message to the EMS community is that the process begins on the living room floor with the identification of the STEMI, and that there should be seamless transition all the way to resolution in the cath lab. Having EMS interpret 12-lead EKG has been a key to decreasing door-to-balloon times for these patients.

Collaborating with EMS, Providence cardiac teams – which include the emergency department, the cardiovascular cath lab and the critical care unit – respond very quickly with lifesaving interventions in our cath labs. The nurse teams are invaluable in maintaining this high level of care throughout the patients’ stays.

Mission: Lifeline awards the bronze medal to hospitals that have a composite score of 85 percent and meet performance measures 75 percent of the time for three consecutive months.

Many thanks to the physicians and staff who are at the ready for these patients for whom every
minute counts!

Providence Together: A heart attack strikes in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere.