Rear view shot of hospital staff wheeling a patient in a gurney down a corridor
Acute Heart Attack Ready
Let this certification guide your ST-Segment-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) program toward improvement. Meets the characteristics for a Level III hospital within a STEMI System of Care.
Elevate Your Heart Attack Care
This certification program will standardize and improve coordinated systems of care across settings regarding identification, assessment, monitoring, management, data sharing, and performance improvement for multidisciplinary STEMI heart attack care.
Benefits
Certification from The Joint Commission offers many opportunities to build and grow an outstanding heart attack program to impact patient care.
- Demonstrate commitment to a high standard of service
- Provide a framework to improve patient outcomes
- Helps to organize teams across the continuum of care
- Gain a competitive edge in the market
- Enhance staff recruitment and development
- Be recognized by insurers and other third parties
What it Takes to be Certified
Key Characteristics of the Acute Heart Attack Ready (AHAR) Program:
- Focus on symptom onset and first medical contact, emergency medical services, the emergency department, as well as catheterization laboratories (if applicable) and inpatient settings.
- Recommended for organizations without on-site primary PCI coverage 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. An AHAR hospital may transfer STEMI patients to a Primary Heart Attack Center or Comprehensive Heart Attack Center for care.
Collaborating with the American Heart Association
Offered in collaboration with the American Heart Association achieving certification means you’re dedicated to providing cardiac care to your community. This patient-centric approach is better for your patients, their families and your program.
The American Heart Association recently published a policy statement, Systems of Care for ST-Segment-Elevation Myocardial Infarction. This statement sets forth recommendations for how the ideal STEMI system of care should be designed and implemented to ensure that patients with STEMI receive the best evidence-based care at each stage in their illness.