Loyola’s Heart Attack Rapid Response Team Receives AHA Silver Quality Award

Loyola’s Heart Attack Rapid Response Team Receives AHA Silver Quality Award

Loyola University Medical Center, in Maywood, Illinois, has received the American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline Silver Receiving Quality Achievement Award, which recognizes

Loyola’s commitment and success in implementing an exceptional standard of care for heart attack patients. Loyola is the only hospital in Illinois to have an interventional cardiologist, nurses, and technologists on site 24/7 to provide emergency angioplasties. At Loyola, the Heart Attack Rapid Response Team’s door-to-balloon time averaged 56 minutes in 2012, and 54 minutes during the first half of 2013. All cases in both years were performed in under 90 minutes.

“If we can reopen the artery within 60 minutes, there will be minimal damage. Our goal is to perform angioplasties within this Golden Hour,” said Dr. Fred Leya, medical director of interventional cardiology.