Report: UNC Health Southeastern among nation’s top performing hospitals for treatment of HHeart attack patients

LUMBERTON — UNC Health Southeastern has received the American College of Cardiology’s NCDR Chest Pain-MI Registry Silver Performance Achievement Award for 2024. UNC Health Southeastern is one of only 80 hospitals nationwide to receive the honor.

The award recognizes UNC Health Southeastern’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients and signifies that the health system 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 Silver Performance Achievement Award, UNC Health Southeastern has demonstrated sustained achievement in the Chest Pain ̶ MI Registry for four consecutive quarters during 2023 and performed with distinction in 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 UNC Health Southeastern with the Silver 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 UNC Health Southeastern 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.

“We are proud of the continuous commitment by our teammates to ensure that we are providing the highest level of care for our patients,” said UNC Health Southeastern President/CEO Chris Ellington. “This recognition focuses specifically on the work we do, in partnership with Duke Health, to care for chest pain and heart attack patients in our community who need intervention that is not only quality, but also a rapid and life-saving intervention.”

Chest Pain ̶ MI Registry empowers healthcare 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.

According to UNC Health Southeastern Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Lori Dove, UNC Health Southeastern is currently performing at the gold performance achievement level and would expect to earn that higher designation in fiscal year 2025.