The overarching goal of Mission: Lifeline is to reduce mortality and morbidity for people who experience a STEMI heart attack, which is particularly dangerous because it completely blocks the blood flow to a portion of the heart and immediate treatment is critical.
While most hospitals can administer clot-busting pharmaceuticals to heart attack patients, only 25% of our nation's hospitals are equipped to provide the most effective form of treatment for a STEMI heart attack: percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). PCI uses mechanical means such as stents, balloon angioplasty or surgery to restore blood flow. For best results, PCI should be administered within 90-minutes of the STEMI event.
To meet the overarching goal, Mission: Lifeline will bring together the necessary partnerships between:
- Patients and care givers
- EMS
- Physicians, nurses and other providers
- Non-PCI capable (STEMI Referral) hospitals
- PCI capable (STEMI-Receiving) hospitals
- Departments of Health
- EMS regulatory authority/ Office of EMS
- Rural Health Association
- Quality Improvement Organizations
- State and local policymakers
- Third-party payers
- Health Systems
Mission: Lifeline works to help develop STEMI systems of care, ensuring that STEMI patients across this country can get the life-saving care they need within the critical time window. By bringing together healthcare resources into an efficient, synergistic system, improvements in the overall quality of care will occur. The needs of heart attack patients will be met throughout the continuum of care – from the time patients experience symptoms and enter the STEMI system, throughout each aspect of the system, and after returning to the local community and to their physician for rehabilitative care.
