Two hallmarks of outstanding performance.

When hospital teams take extraordinary measures to ensure quality care for STEMI and cardiac resuscitation patients, it’s news worth sharing. Mission: Lifeline^® awards and hospital accreditation programs are two ways to raise awareness of outstanding performance.

Mission: Lifeline Awards^®
Data submitted through ACTION Registry^®-GWTG™, the approved Mission: Lifeline national registry program, is the basis for identifying award-level achievement on the part of participating hospital teams. Award winners are honored at national and regional conferences and in a congratulatory ad in the Best Hospitals issue of U.S. News & World Report. Public recognition raises awareness of the need for effective STEMI systems of care as well as the lifesaving efforts of specific hospital teams. Currently, the recognition program applies only to STEMI systems of care. Plans are underway to expand the program to include cardiac resuscitation systems of care as well. To learn more about recognition requirements, please see our updated Mission: Lifeline recognition achievement measures or contact missionlifeline@heart.org.

To be eligible for recognition, a hospital must:

• Be registered with Mission: Lifeline.
• Have an executed data release consent form and hospital registration form.
• Participate in ACTION Registry-GWTG.
• UPDATED  Volume Requirements:
  • Receiving Centers (24/7 PCI Centers):  At least 9 STEMI patients in the reporting quarter, 36 STEMI patients per year.
  • Referral Centers (non-24/7 PCI Centers):  At least 4 STEMI patients in the reporting quarter, minimum of 10 STEMI patients per year*.
• Meet all Mission: Lifeline recognition benchmarks for specified timeframes (Mission: Lifeline recognition achievement measures).

*For those sites that do not meet volume requirements, hospital data can be aggregated for a year if the hospital is a critical access hospital as defined by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.


The full list of 2012 American Heart Association awards is now available! These awards are based on data submitted to ACTION Registry - GWTG in the 2011 calendar year.  Mission: Lifeline awards are listed on page 6. 

Mission: Lifeline Accreditation
The American Heart Association has partnered with the Society of Cardiovascular Patient Care (formerly Society of Chest Pain Centers) to offer accreditation to Mission: Lifeline hospitals. Accreditation denotes the highest level of STEMI care. Hospitals that earn accreditation have the unique opportunity to display the Heart-Check mark, a symbol millions of Americans know and trust.

A Mission: Lifeline Heart Attack Receiving Center Accreditation identifies hospitals that meet STEMI treatment criteria.

A Mission: Lifeline Referring Center Accreditation identifies hospitals that meet high standards of performance in prompt diagnosis and transfer of STEMI patients.

The accreditation process is managed by the Society of Cardiovascular Patient Care. To learn about the Society of Cardiovascular Patient care and the accreditation criteria, visit scpcp.org. Also, check out the American Heart Association's new hospital accreditation program's websites www.heart.org/accreditation and www.heart.org/myhospital.