NMMC Among Nation’s Top Performing Hospitals for Treatment of Heart Attack Patients

American College of Cardiology NCDR Chest Pain-MI Registry Platinum Award recognizes sustained, high level performance in quality of care

NMMC Heart and Vascular Institute team members display the American College of Cardiology’s NCDR Chest Pain-MI Registry Platinum Performance Achievement Award.

TUPELO, Miss.—North Mississippi Medical Center has received the American College of Cardiology’s NCDR Chest Pain-MI Registry Platinum Performance Achievement Award for the third consecutive year. NMMC is one of only 259 hospitals nationwide to receive this award for 2024.

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

“This award reflects the dedication to quality care for heart attack patients by the entire NMMC team—beginning with Emergency Medical Services, continuing with the Cardiac Catheterization Lab, ICU and ending with the cardiac care units. This quality is top notch 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year,” said Barry Bertolet, M.D., an interventional cardiologist on NMMC’s medical staff. “While this award goes to the NMMC team, our patients are the winners!” 

To receive the award, NMMC demonstrated sustained achievement in the Chest Pain-MI Registry for two consecutive years (2022 and 2023) 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.

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that over 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 about NMMC’s Heart and Vascular Institute, visit nmhs.net/heart-vascular.