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Community Ambulance Service of Minot has earned recognition from the American Heart Association for continued excellence in providing swift care to people experiencing a heart attack.

The ambulance service recently received the Mission: Lifeline® EMS Gold Achievement Award for implementing quality improvement measures designed to improve patient outcomes in cardiac emergencies.

Every year, more than 250,000 people experience a STEMI, or ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction, a type of heart attack caused by a complete blockage of blood flow to the heart that requires timely treatment. To prevent death or severe heart damage, blood flow must be restored as quickly as possible through interventional cardiology or a clot-busting drug.

“EMTs and paramedics play a vital part in the system of care for those who have heart attacks,” said Tim Henry, M.D., Chair of the Mission: Lifeline Acute Coronary Syndrome Subcommittee. “Since they often are the first medical point of contact, they can shave precious minutes of lifesaving treatment time by activating the emergency response system that alerts hospitals. We applaud Community Ambulance Service for achieving this award that shows it meets evidence-based guidelines in the treatment of people who have severe heart attacks.”

CAS was a leader and early champion in the move to equip paramedics with 12-lead EKG. The move has given them the ability to transmit a patient’s cardiac data from the field to a hospital with a cardiac catheterization lab, such as Trinity Hospital, which enables doctors and heart teams to identify STEMI and activate protocols without delay.

“I’m very proud of our team,” said CAS Director Greg Anderson. “Through coordination with Trinity Health and intensive training with our paramedics, we have minimized the time it takes from receiving the emergency call to intervention, which means better outcomes for our cardiac patients.”