Winchester Medical Center Among Nation’s Top Performing Hospitals for Heart Attack Treatment

Valley Health’s Heart & Vascular Center at Winchester Medical Center has received the American College of Cardiology’s NCDR Chest Pain ̶ MI Registry Platinum Performance Achievement Award for 2023. WMC is one of only 262 hospitals nationwide to receive the honor.

The award recognizes the regional hospital’s commitment and success implementing a higher standard of care for patients experiencing chest pain and heart attack, or myocardial infarction (MI), and signifies its aggressive goal of treating these patients to clinical care standards outlined by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association.

To receive the Chest Pain - MI Registry Platinum Performance Achievement Award, WMC has demonstrated sustained achievement in the Chest Pain ̶ MI Registry for two consecutive years (2021 and 2022), and performed at the highest level for specific performance measures. Full participation in the registry engages hospitals in a robust quality improvement process using data to drive improvements in adherence to guideline recommendations and overall quality of care provided to heart attack patients.

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that over 800,000 Americans suffer a heart attack each year. A heart attack occurs when a blood clot in a coronary artery partially or completely blocks blood flow to the heart muscle. Treatment guidelines include administering aspirin upon arrival and discharge, timely restoration of blood flow to the blocked artery, smoking cessation counseling and cardiac rehabilitation, among others.

Chest Pain ̶ MI Registry empowers health care provider teams to consistently treat heart attack patients according to the most current, science-based guidelines and establishes a national standard for understanding and improving the quality, safety and outcomes of care provided for patients with coronary artery disease, specifically high-risk heart attack patients.

The Valley Health Heart & Vascular Center at Winchester Medical Center offers comprehensive medical, surgical and rehabilitation care for adults in a growing tri-state region. WMC’s 24 cardiovascular physician specialists treat approximately 550 heart attack patients per year.