Mission: Lifeline® EMS Recognition
Why Participate in Mission: Lifeline EMS Recognition?
Mission: Lifeline EMS recognition is the American Heart Association’s program that recognizes prehospital emergency agencies for their quality of care for heart attack and stroke patients. The recognition program focuses on transforming care quality by connecting all heart attack and stroke care components into a seamlessly integrated care system. Key tenets of these systems of care reinforce evidence-based guidelines and measure performance, identify gaps, and engage in quality improvement.
2023 Mission: Lifeline EMS Award Winners
Congratulations to our 2023 award winners! Is your agency on the list?
2024 Mission: Lifeline EMS Recognition
2024 Mission: Lifeline EMS recognition (based on 2023 data) marks the addition of required stroke measures. With the new recognition program structure, eligibility is available for transporting and non-transporting prehospital agencies.
The Target Heart Attack (STEMI) designation focuses on coordinating care between prehospital agencies and the destination hospital. This time-critical award level is limited to those agencies that provide patient transport to STEMI-receiving and STEMI-referring centers. For an agency to be eligible for the Mission: Lifeline Target Heart Attack award, it must first meet the criteria of the Mission: Lifeline EMS Prehospital award (Gold, Silver, or Bronze)
See the EMS Recognition Criteria for the specific required measures.
2024 Application Timeline:
Pre-Application Period
From now through February 22nd
- Review the following documents
- Mission: Lifeline EMS Recognition Criteria (updated version)
- Mission: Lifeline EMS FAQ
- Register and attend the national webinar.
- GoTo Webinar Link: 2024 Mission: Lifeline EMS Recognition Webinar
- Wednesday February 21st, 2:00 PM-3:00 PM ET
- The 2024 application timeline is slightly later this year, as information becomes available, interested applicants will be updated via email.
Application Period
- February 22nd– May 31st - Midnight Central Time
- Applications will be submitted via AHA’s Quality & Certification Tool (QCT) portal.
- Optional Office Hours (bring your application questions) - After the initial training – sessions will be scheduled where you can ask you specific, individual questions about your application. Data reviews are available upon request.
What is the Quality Certification Tool (QCT)?
- The QCT is a portal where all of your agency’s EMS data can be kept in one place.
- This will streamline the process so you can save your information, access your application, and retrieve your recognition kit all in the QCT portal.
- The QCT supports multiple users (up to five), which enables agencies to have multiple reviewers.
Recognition Ad Kit and Certification Distribution
2024 Mission: Lifeline EMS Recognition certification and distribution will occur in late Summer 2024. Please check the website after July 1st, 2024, for a more detailed timeline.
For questions, please email [email protected].
The American Heart Association appreciates your continued commitment to providing quality care to the communities you serve.