"Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come." – Victor Hugo

More than 3 million individuals have taken the pledge to recognize the beginnings of a heart attack, take early action by calling 9-1-1 or activating emergency services, beginning CPR and staying with the person until help arrives.

The pledge is a core element of the ACC's Early Heart Attack Care (EHAC) initiative, a community outreach and education effort embedded within the requirements for hospitals and other facilities seeking Chest Pain Center Accreditation from ACC Accreditation Services.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention roughly one American has a heart attack every 40 seconds and more than 800,000 die each year. The timely identification and risk stratification of acute coronary syndromes in the early stages is crucial to preventing major adverse coronary events and death. However, while early symptoms occur in roughly 50% of all patients, they are often ignored until it is too late.

Recognizing the need for broader awareness and education, as well as the important roles hospitals play in their respective communities, EHAC has made "recognizing and responding" a top priority.

To date, community outreach is one of nine "Essential Components" of the College's Chest Pain Center Accreditation program. To achieve accreditation, all participating hospitals and health systems must work to increase community awareness of heart attack signs and symptoms and develop educational programs through partnerships with emergency medical services (EMS), local health care providers, employers, and the community-at-large to increase public awareness of the value for early patient engagement for heart attack care and CPR.

When taken together with the other eight components, including ensuring appropriate risk stratification, reducing door-to-reperfusion times, improving integration of EMS into patient care processes, aligning with the latest clinical guidance, integrating the entire cardiovascular care team, and more, hospitals are on the best path to sustain and improve cardiovascular patient care and outcomes.

Thank You

Special thanks to EHAC Founder Raymond Bahr, MD, FACC, for his overall leadership and vision, as well as his contributions to this article.

Click here to learn more about EHAC and take the pledge.

Click here for more on ACC Accreditation Services.

The ACC, while celebrating the 3 million pledge milestone, has no intention of slowing down when it comes to early heart attack care. Industry partners and other stakeholders have also taken the pledge and each year attendees at the College's Quality Summit are "deputized" into action by taking the pledge. Greater integration with the ACC's CardioSmart patient education initiative is another opportunity to reach cardiovascular patients and caregivers with education and resources outside of the hospital setting.

At the end of the day, prevention is a key word in medicine, and prevention of a heart attack is possible when you act quickly during the time that symptoms are minimal.

Keywords: Cardiology Magazine, ACC Publications, Chest Pain, Myocardial Infarction, Patient Participation, Risk Assessment