SSUH Earns Top American Heart Association Award

Press release from Northwell Health:

Dec. 9, 2020

South Shore University Hospital (SSUH) has earned the American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline gold award for the fourth consecutive time for its high-quality care of people with severe heart attacks.

SSUH earned this distinction by consistently getting patients suffering an ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) – a heart attack that can be fatal without swift intervention – to one of the hospital's three cardiac catheterization lab where blood flow can be restored. The hospital previously earned the bronze designation in 2015 and the silver award in 2016.

“Receiving this designation four times in a row from the American Heart Association is a demonstration that South Shore University Hospital truly provides the best care for severe heart attack patients on Long Island,” said Puneet Gandotra, MD, the hospital’s vice chair of cardiology.

SSUH was able to care for these patients more quickly through the hospital's use of the LifeNet system, which allows first responders to securely send important health information, electrocardiograms (ECG), to the hospital's emergency cardiac team so they can mobilize to help the incoming patient. This speed of care is also due to the strong partnership South Shore has with its local emergency medical services first responders.

“The LifeNet system allows physicians at South Shore University Hospital’s Bohlsen Family Emergency Department to securely receive an electrocardiogram from emergency medical services professionals in the field and then quickly evaluate whether the emergency cardiac team should be called,” said Sanjey Gupta, MD, the hospital’s chair of emergency medicine. “Having the cardiac team able to anticipate and prepare to receive a patient with a blocked artery gets that patient the lifesaving care they need markedly sooner.”

The Entenmann Family Cardiac Center at SSUH has nationally-recognized interventional cardiology and cardiac surgery specialists. The hospital was ranked among the top 50 best hospitals in the U.S. for heart surgery by Healthgrades in 2019 as well as among the top 10 percent in the country for coronary interventional procedures.

The New York State Department of Health also recognized SSUH as having among the state’s best outcomes for isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), the repair or replacement of heart valves and for those who need both kinds of procedures. New York State’s average risk-adjusted mortality rate was 2.22 percent and SSUH’s rate was 0.79 percent, which earned the hospital the prestigious double asterisk. SSUH’s Cardiothoracic Chair Robert Kalimi, MD, had a perfect risk-adjusted mortality rate in all of these categories.

South Shore University Hospital, which began caring for patients more than 100 years ago as Southside Hospital, recently changed its name to reflect the high-quality care provided at the institution as well as its teaching capabilities.

For more information about South Shore University Heart & Lung, call (631) 968-3525 or go to https://southside.northwell.edu/southside-heart-lung.

This press release was produced by Northwell Health. The views expressed here are the author's own.