CMH among nation’s top performing hospitals for treatment of heart attack patients

• 15 December 2023

Citizens Memorial Hospital has received the American College of Cardiology’s NCDR Chest Pain – MI Registry Platinum Performance Achievement Award for 2023. CMH is one of only 262 hospitals nationwide and one of 16 in Missouri to receive the honor.

Locally, CMH joins two other hospitals in southwest Missouri on the list, including Cox Medical Center Branson and Mercy Hospital-Springfield.

The award recognizes CMH’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients. It signifies that CMH 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.

“This award affirms the high quality of care patients receive at CMH,” said Michael Calhoun, CEO/executive director of CMH and the Citizens Memorial Health Care Foundation. “We provide the same level of care for heart attack patients as larger hospitals. Heart attack patients in our rural communities benefit from access to safe, quality care at CMH.”

To receive the Chest Pain-MI Registry Platinum Performance Achievement Award, CMH has demonstrated sustained achievement in the Chest Pain-MI Registry for two consecutive years (2021 and 2022) and performed at the highest level for specific performance measures. Full participation in the registry engages hospitals in a robust quality improvement process using data to drive improvements in adherence to guideline recommendations and overall quality of care provided to heart attack patients.

“It is an honor to award Citizens Memorial Hospital with the Platinum Performance Award for their valuable national leadership and dedication to meeting comprehensive performance measures in patient care,” said Michael C. Kontos, M.D., FACC, chair of the NCDR Chest Pain – MI Registry Steering Subcommittee and cardiologist at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center. “The receipt of this award indicates that CMH remains committed to providing top-quality, guideline-driven care for heart attack patients. Their success ensures patients are receiving the highest quality cardiovascular care.”

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that more than 800,000 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.

Chest Pain  ̶  MI Registry 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.

For more information, go to https://www.cardiosmart.org/.