Lutheran Hospital Among Nation’s Top Performing Hospitals for Treatment of Heart Attack Patients

7/1/2025

Lutheran Hospital has received the American College of Cardiology’s NCDR Chest Pain ̶ MI Registry Platinum Performance Achievement Award for 2025. Lutheran Hospital is one of only 323 hospitals nationwide to receive the honor.

The award recognizes Lutheran Hospital’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients and signifies that Lutheran Hospital has reached an aggressive goal of treating these patients to standard levels of care as outlined by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association clinical guidelines and recommendations.

"This distinction underscores our unwavering commitment to delivering high-quality, evidence-based cardiovascular care. The recognition reflects not only clinical excellence, but also the coordination, dedication, and diligence of our entire multidisciplinary team—including emergency medicine, cardiology, nursing, and quality improvement staff—who have worked tirelessly to optimize protocols, reduce treatment times, and improve outcomes for patients experiencing acute cardiac events,” said Vijay Chilakamarri, M.D., FACC, of Lutheran Health Physicians.

“Achieving this level of performance required rigorous data tracking, ongoing performance improvement, and above all, a shared passion for saving lives. We thank every team member for their hard work and collaboration in making this achievement possible," added Dr. Chilakamarri.

To receive the Chest Pain ̶ MI Registry Platinum Performance Achievement Award, Lutheran Hospital has demonstrated sustained achievement in the Chest Pain ̶ MI Registry for two consecutive years (2023 and 2024) 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.

“It is an honor to award Lutheran Hospital with the Platinum Performance Award for their valuable national leadership and dedication to meeting comprehensive performance measures in patient care,” said Michael C. Kontos, M.D., FACC, chair of the NCDR Chest Pain – MI Registry Steering Subcommittee, and cardiologist at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center. “The receipt of this award indicates that Lutheran Hospital remains committed to providing top quality, guideline-driven care for heart attack patients. Their success ensures patients are receiving the highest quality cardiovascular care.”

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.

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