Tulane Health System celebrates three quality awards from the American Heart Association

During a medical emergency, every minute matters – which is why Tulane Health System strives for the fastest response times and highest quality of care for our patients.

The American Heart Association recently recognized Tulane Health System for fast, quality care across several disciplines in three different categories.

Tulane Health System’s Stroke Program achieved the highest possible quality award from the American Heart Association (AHA), the Target: Stroke Honor Roll-Elite Plus award. Tulane was the first hospital in Louisiana to achieve this distinguished quality award, which recognizes hospitals that continue improving acute ischemic stroke care by reducing door-to-needle times for eligible patients being treated with the clot busting drug tPA. Facilities must prove that they can have an expert available to see the patient within 10 minutes, and result bloodwork, interpret EKGs and interpret brain imaging all within 45 minutes, with a goal of administering IV tPA in less than 60 minutes (if applicable). Tulane has policies and protocols in place to achieve these goals, as well as extensive education with hospital staff and EMS providers regarding identification and treatment of strokes.

Tulane Medical Center also earned the Mission: Lifeline® Silver Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association for the treatment of patients who suffer severe heart attacks. The American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline program’s goal is to reduce system barriers to prompt treatment for heart attacks, beginning with the 911 call and continuing through hospital treatment. Tulane Medical Center earned the award by meeting specific criteria and standards of performance for the quick and appropriate treatment of STEMI patients by providing emergency procedures to re-establish blood flow to blocked arteries when needed.

The third award Tulane received from the AHA was the Get With The Guidelines®–Resuscitation Silver Quality Achievement Award, which signifies that Tulane Medical Center has reached an aggressive goal in using guidelines-based care to improve patient outcomes from in-hospital cardiac arrest. The Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation program aims to help hospital teams save more lives threatened by cardiopulmonary emergencies by consistently following the most up-to-date scientific guidelines for treating patients who suffer a cardiac arrest in the hospital.