For the Third-Straight Year, St. James Earns Platinum Achievement Award for Heart Attack Treatment
St. James Healthcare, now part of Intermountain Health, has received the American College of Cardiology’s NCDR Chest Pain ̶ MI Registry Platinum Performance Achievement Award for 2023. This places St. James as one of only 262 hospitals nationwide to receive the honor.
The award recognizes St. James Healthcare, now part of Intermountain Health, and its commitment to successfully implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients. It signifies that St. James 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.
To receive the Chest Pain ̶ MI Registry Platinum Performance Achievement Award, St. James 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 St. James with the Platinum Performance Award for their valuable national leadership and dedication to meeting comprehensive performance measures in patient care,” said Michael C. Kontos, MD, 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 St. James 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 almost 800,000 Americans yearly suffer a heart attack. 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.
At St. James, we are dedicated to helping the people in our communities live the healthiest lives possible. This impressive third consecutive Platinum Achievement Award is a testament to our team's continued commitment to the cardiovascular health of our patients. The award celebrates the remarkable teamwork between local dispatch, EMS providers and our Emergency Department, cardiologists, cath lab staff, and nursing staff who strive to exceed expectations for quickly and efficiently assessing and caring for patients who require immediate treatment for cardiac emergencies.
St. Vincent Healthcare in Billings, a fellow Intermountain Health Montana hospital, has also earned Platinum-level recognition with awards in 2021, 2022, and 2023.
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.
About St. James Healthcare and Intermountain Healthcare
St. James Healthcare has served the people of Southwestern Montana for more than 135 years and is the largest and only acute care health care facility in the region. St. James Healthcare is a 67-bed hospital located in Butte, Montana, with more than 450 caregivers, alongside 100 physicians and advanced care professionals, offering 24-hour care and dozens of progressive specialty services. St. James Healthcare is part of the Intermountain Healthcare system. Based in Utah with locations in seven states (Montana, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming) and additional operations across the western U.S., Intermountain Healthcare is a nonprofit healthcare system comprised of 33 hospitals, 385 clinics, medical groups with some 3,800 employed physicians and advanced practice providers. To help people live the healthiest lives possible, Intermountain is committed to improving community health and is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare by using evidence-based best practices to consistently deliver high-quality outcomes at sustainable costs. To learn more about St. James Healthcare, visit sjh-mt.org.
The American College of Cardiology
The American College of Cardiology envisions a world where innovation and knowledge optimize cardiovascular care and outcomes. As the professional home for the entire cardiovascular care team, the mission of the College and its more than 56,000 members is to transform cardiovascular care and to improve heart health. The ACC bestows credentials upon cardiovascular professionals who meet stringent qualifications and leads in the formation of health policy, standards and guidelines. The College also provides professional medical education, disseminates cardiovascular research through its world-renowned JACC Journals, operates national registries to measure and improve care, and offers cardiovascular accreditation to hospitals and institutions. For more, visit acc.org.