University of Cincinnati Medical Center Receives National Cardiology Award

NOTE TO EDITORS: High-resolution images of Richard Becker, MD, and Tarek Helmy, MD, are available by calling Cedric Ricks at 513-558-4657.

CINCINNATI, Dec. 30, 2013—UC Health University of Cincinnati Medical Center has received a national award from the American College of Cardiology Foundation recognizing its commitment to strengthening care for heart attack patients. UC Medical Center is one of 197 hospitals across the nation to receive the NCDR ACTION Registry-GWTG Platinum Performance Award for 2013.

The award recognizes success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients and signifies UC Medical Center has reached an aggressive goal of treating these patients to standard levels of care outlined by American College of Cardiology (ACC) and American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines and recommendations.

To receive the ACTION Registry-GWTG Platinum Performance Achievement Award, UC Medical Center consistently followed ACTION Registry-GWTG Premier treatment guidelines for eight consecutive quarters and met a performance standard of 90 percent for specific performance measures.

Following these treatment guidelines improves adherence to ACC/AHA Clinical Guideline recommendations and monitors drug safety and the overall quality of care provided to ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction patients (NSTEMI).

"The American College of Cardiology Foundation and the American Heart Association commend University of Cincinnati Medical Center for its success in implementing standards of care and protocols,” said James Jollis, MD, FACC, ACTION Registry-GWTG chair and professor of medicine and radiology at Duke University. "The full implementation of acute and secondary prevention guideline-recommended therapy is a critical step in saving the lives and improving outcomes of heart attack patients.”

UC Medical Center was able to achieve this prestigious designation because of the excellent level of care provided by interventional faculty physicians, fellows, and staff in the hospital’s cardiac catheterization laboratory as well as the cardiovascular intensive care unit team.

"University of Cincinnati Medical Center, its Division of Cardiovascular Health and Disease and the Heart, Lung and Vascular Institute have quality at their foundation,” said Richard Becker, MD, director of cardiovascular services at UC Health and director and physician-in-chief of the UC Heart, Lung and Vascular Institute.

"The Tristate should also take pride knowing that academic medical centers like UC developed the therapies, trained many of the  cardiologists, nurses and technicians in the their regions and implemented coordinated care to treat acute myocardial infarction for the public good. This is our mission and our time-honored commitment to the community,” said Becker, who is also Mabel Stearns Stonehill Endowed Chair and Professor of the UC Division of Cardiovascular Health and Disease.

"This indicates we are doing an excellent job of taking care of patients,” said Tarek Helmy, MD, professor of medicine in the division of cardiovascular health and disease and director of cardiac catheterization laboratory at the UC College of Medicine. "Our work in the catheterization lab and intensive care unit is just one part of the efforts and actions taken by UC Medical Center to achieve centers of excellence regionally and nationally.”

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 and the Society of Cardiovascular Patient Care. 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.

About UC Health
UC Health, the University of Cincinnati’s affiliated health system, includes University of Cincinnati Medical Center, ranked one of the best hospitals in the region by U.S. News & World Report; West Chester Hospital, one of Cincinnati’s newest hospitals and the recipient of the 2013 HealthGrades® Outstanding Patient Experience Award™, ranking it above 90 percent of hospitals nationally for patient satisfaction; Daniel Drake Center For Post-Acute Care, Cincinnati’s premier provider of long-term acute care; University of Cincinnati Physicians, Cincinnati’s largest multi-specialty practice group with more than 700 board-certified clinicians and surgeons; Lindner Center of HOPE, the region’s premier mental health center; and several institutes focusing on the areas of cancer, the neurosciences, cardiovascular and diabetes. To learn more, visit UCHealth.com.