Baptist Heart Services Receives Honor from Duke University

Jackson, Miss. - December 11, 2003 -- This month, Baptist Heart Services received an Outstanding Care Award from CRUSADE, a nationwide registry of heart patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) coordinated by Duke Clinical Research Institute. Medical Director for the University of Mississippi Medical Center's Emergency Department Dr. Richard Summers presented the award to Baptist. He serves as a CRUSADE steering committee member for Duke Clinical Research Institute. Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leading biopharmaceutical company based in Cambridge, Mass., and Schering-Plough Corporation are funding Duke's research for CRUSADE and hosted the award ceremony.

Baptist entered into CRUSADE nationwide quality improvement initiative in November 2001. This national program analyzes and modifies treatment patterns of over 70,000 patients suffering from chest pain across the United States. Baptist is one of 600 hospitals across the US participating in CRUSADE. The registry continually gathers data from participating hospitals and provides feedback to the hospitals with a goal of improving outcomes for ACS.

Only 10 percent of participating hospitals nationwide were awarded this recognition. Baptist's award was for the period April 1, 2002 to March 31, 2003.

"This award signifies that Baptist consistently practices high-quality, evidence-based medicine for high-risk cardiac patients," said Baptist Vice President of Clinical Services Steve Jackson.

At the "heart" of the initiative is its emphasis on new treatment guidelines recently released by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association. The guidelines call for the earliest possible determination-in the Emergency Room-of the patient's risk for a serious cardiac event such as a heart attack or stroke. They also prescribe what symptoms and tests should be used to evaluate risk and specify treatments that correspond to the risk level when it is determined.

"Our chest pain evaluation process helps us rapidly identify the cause of chest pain and improve the care of high-risk patients with heart disease," said Jackson.

During the awards' dinner Baptist Respiratory Therapist Kitty Pitts was honored for her participation in CRUSADE. She is responsible for all data abstraction from Baptist, which is pulled and sent to Duke.

:: Back to 2003 press releases