NPMC’s Heart and Vascular Center of Central Arkansas recognized with silver performance award
July 1, 2025
National Park Medical Center’s Heart and Vascular Center of Central Arkansas has received the American College of Cardiology’s NCDR Chest Pain ̶ MI Registry Silver Performance Achievement Award for 2025. NPMC is one of only 79 hospitals nationwide to receive the honor.
The award recognizes NPMC’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients and signifies that NPMC 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.
To receive the Chest Pain ̶ MI Registry Silver Performance Achievement Award, NPMC has demonstrated sustained achievement in the Chest Pain ̶ MI Registry for four consecutive quarters during 2024 and performed with distinction in 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 NPMC with the Silver Performance Award for their valuable national leadership and dedication to meeting comprehensive performance measures in patient care,” said Michael C. Kontos, MD, 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 NPMC 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.
“We are absolutely thrilled to be recognized for our excellence in cardiac care,” said Scotty Howell, Director of Cardiology Services. “This incredible achievement is a direct result of the passion and dedication our Cardiology Care Team at NPMC Heart & Vascular Center brings to work every single day. We are deeply proud of this accomplishment and are more motivated than ever to continue our mission of making communities healthier.”
Chest Pain ̶ MI Registry empowers health care provider teams to consistently treat heart attack patients according to the most current, science-based guidelines and establishes a national standard for understanding and improving the quality, safety and outcomes of care provided for patients with coronary artery disease, specifically high-risk heart attack patients.
About National Park Medical Center
National Park Medical Center is a 163-bed full-service acute care hospital located in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Our mission is simple: Making Communities Healthier. We are a part of the LifePoint Health family of hospitals, which means we aim to create a place where people choose to come for healthcare, physicians want to practice, and employees want to work. Our core values are honesty, integrity & trustworthiness, inclusion, compassion and legal/ethical compliance. Our hospital’s Joint Commission accreditation powerfully demonstrates our commitment to meeting the highest national standards for quality and safety.