Seven of Acadian Ambulance’s service areas have received the American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline® EMS Award for implementing quality improvement measures for the treatment of patients who experienced severe heart attacks, known as STEMIs, during 2019.
Acadian’s Northshore (covering St. Helena, Tangipahoa, and St. Tammany parishes); Bayou (covering Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, Assumption, St. James, and St. John the Baptist parishes); Northeast Louisiana (covering Ouachita Parish); and Houston (spanning Harris, Fort Bend, Brazoria, Galveston, Montgomery, and Walker counties) service areas received the Silver Plus recognition.
Acadian’s Southeast Texas (covering Orange, Jefferson, Chambers, Jasper, Newton, Hardin, Liberty, and Angelina counties); Central Texas (spanning Hays, Travis, Williamson, Bell, Lampasas, Burnet, Coryell, Milam, and Bastrop counties); and Orleans (spanning Jefferson, Orleans, and St. Bernard parishes) service areas achieved the Bronze Plus recognition.
AHA’s Mission: Lifeline measures review the percentage of an agency’s patients who receive a prehospital 12 Lead ECG; the amount of time taken to perform a 12 Lead ECG on a STEMI patient; percentage of hospital transmissions that suggest a STEMI alert; and percentage of patients treated and transported directly to a STEMI receiving center and to a STEMI referring hospital.
“Acadian Ambulance is dedicated to providing optimal care for heart attack patients,” said Chief Medical Officer Dr. Chuck Burnell. “We are pleased to be recognized for our dedication and achievements in emergency medical care efforts through Mission: Lifeline.”
Every year, more than 250,000 people experience a deadly STEMI type of heart attack, which is caused by a blockage of blood flow to the heart and requires timely treatment.
The American Heart Association and American Stroke Association’s® Mission: Lifeline program focuses on helping communities and regions form effective coalitions of hospitals, ambulance services, non-transport medical first response agencies, emergency communications centers,
emergency medical service regulatory/medical direction agencies, local government, local media, and payers.
Acadian Ambulance is one of the largest ambulance services in the nation, offering emergency and non-emergency transportation to areas in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Tennessee.