St. Francis Medical Center recently earned the 2021 Get With The Guidelines Resuscitation Gold Quality Achievement Award for its commitment to treating in-hospital cardiac arrest, ultimately helping to improve patient survival rates.

More than 200,000 adults and children have an in-hospital cardiac arrest each year, according to the American Heart Association. Survival from cardiac arrest is largely dependent on timely medical emergency team response and effective CPR.

“Earning this quality award, particularly during all the challenges brought on by the pandemic, demonstrates St. Francis’ long-term commitment to providing high-quality cardiac care,” said Daniel P. Moen, President and Chief Executive Officer, St. Francis Medical Center. “We are proud to work with the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association to ensure the best possible chance of survival for our patients after cardiac arrest.”

St. Francis received the award for meeting specific measures in treating adult patients who suffer cardiac arrests in the hospital.

“Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation makes it easier for our teams to put proven knowledge and guidelines to work on a daily basis,” said Ryan Ihlenfeldt, Clinical Director of Telemetry, Critical Care and Nursing Education at St. Francis Medical Center. “The team at St. Francis is dedicated to helping our patients have the best possible outcomes and that’s why we’ve implemented the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation program. Our team uses these protocols and lives have been saved as a result.”

The Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation program was developed to help save lives of patients who experience in-hospital cardiac arrests by consistently following the most up-to-date research-based guidelines for treatment. Guidelines include following protocols for patient safety, medical emergency team response, effective and timely resuscitation (CPR) and post-resuscitation care.

“We are pleased to recognize St. Francis Medical Center for its commitment in following these guidelines,” said Tia Raymond, M.D., national chairperson of the American Heart Association’s Resuscitation Systems of Care Advisory Group and a pediatric cardiac intensivist at Medical City Children’s Hospital in Dallas. “Shortening the time to effective resuscitation and maximizing post-resuscitation care is critical to patient survival.”

Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation builds on the work of the American Heart Association’s National Registry of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, originally launched in 1999 and has collected in-hospital cardiac arrest data from more than 500 hospitals. Data from the registry and the quality program give participating hospitals feedback on their resuscitation practice and patient outcomes. The data also help improve research-based guidelines for in-hospital resuscitation. For more information, visit heart.org/quality.

 For more information about St. Francis programs and services, please visit www.stfrancismedical.org or call 1-855-599-SFMC (7362).