The Joint Commission and the American Heart Association have announced new hospital certification programs to improve the systems of care for heart attack patients and save more lives from cardiovascular disease. The organizations have developed the new certifications to establish comprehensive standards and evaluation methods for cardiac and stroke hospital programs based on evidence-based guidelines and best practices that support consistent and high-quality patient care. Cardiovascular disease remains the leading global cause of death with more than 17.9 million deaths each year. While nearly 80 percent of cardiac events can be prevented, cardiovascular diseases continue to be a woman’s greatest health threat, claiming the lives of one in three women.
The Primary Heart Attack Center (PHAC) and the Acute Heart Attack Ready (AHAR) certifications will be available July 1, 2019 to all hospitals, including freestanding emergency departments operated under a hospital. These certifications add to a growing portfolio of performance improvement programs offered by The Joint Commission and the American Heart Association for hospitals committed to consistent, high quality care for stroke and cardiac patients.
The certifications will replace the American Heart Association’s existing Mission: Lifeline Heart Attack Accreditations for STEMI Receiving and Referring Centers. The certifications, based on clinical practice guidelines published in the Association’s journal Circulation, will standardize and improve coordinated systems of care across settings for identification, assessment, monitoring, management, data sharing and performance improvement for multidisciplinary ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) heart attack care.
The PHAC and AHAR certifications focus on symptom onset and first medical contact (pre-hospital and upon hospital arrival), emergency medical services, the emergency department, as well as catheterization laboratories and inpatient settings.
Eligibility for PHAC certification requires hospitals to provide onsite primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) coverage for STEMI patients 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The AHAR certification is recommended for hospitals without onsite primary PCI coverage 24 hours a day, seven days a week. An AHAR hospital may transfer STEMI patients to a primary PCI-capable hospital for care.
The prepublication versions of the certification standards are available on the Prepublication Standards section of The Joint Commission website until June 30, 2019.
