New Hanover Regional Medical Center has received two awards for its treatment of patients who suffer severe heart attacks.

The American Heart Association presented NHRMC with a Mission: Lifeline Gold Plus Receiving award for reaching an achievement score of 75 percent or greater for treating ST-segment elevated myocardial heart infarction (STEMI), which is caused by a complete blockage of blood flow to the heart that requires timely treatment, according to a news release. NHRMC has achieved overall Mission: Lifeline compliance criteria for two consecutive years with an 85 percent or greater composite score.

The Mission: Lifeline program’s goal is to reduce system barriers to prompt treatment for heart attacks, beginning with the 911 call and continuing through hospital treatment, the release stated. The national standard for medical contact to artery open time is 90 minutes. NHRMC’s 2014 medical contact to artery open time, meaning the time EMS arrives to the time the blocked artery is opened by stent or balloon, was 75 minutes. For a patient arriving at NHRMC, the medical contact to artery open time was 43 minutes.

The second Mission: Lifeline award honored NHRMC’s Emergency Medical Services and AirLink VitaLink Critical Care Transport teams. The Gold Award recognized the teams “for implementing quality improvement measures for the treatment of patients who experience severe heart attacks,” the release stated.

This is the second consecutive year that the emergency teams received the Mission: Lifeline’s highest honor.

The program helps hospitals and emergency medical services develop systems of care that follow proven standards and procedures for STEMI patients, according to the release, which explained that Mission: Lifeline works by mobilizing teams across the continuum of care to implement American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology Foundation clinical treatment guidelines.