EMS at Englewood Health Receives National Recognition for Heart Attack and Stroke Care

EMS Earns American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline Gold Award for Ninth Consecutive Year

June 26, 2025 — Englewood Health’s Emergency Medical Services (EMS) has received the American Heart Association’s (AHA) Mission: Lifeline® Gold EMS achievement award for its commitment to delivering rapid and research-based life-saving care for people experiencing the most severe form of heart attack and stroke.

This is the ninth consecutive time that Englewood Health has received the Mission: Lifeline Gold EMS achievement award. The hospital’s EMS is also recognized with AHA’s Mission: Lifeline Target Heart Attack Honor Roll award, for its time-critical top-level care for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients, the most severe heart attack cases.

“It is an honor to be recognized, once again, for our EMS team’s dedication to providing optimal care for heart attack and stroke patients,” says Barbara Schreibman, MD, medical director of Emergency Medical Services and associate chief of emergency medicine at Englewood Hospital. “We are proud to adhere to AHA’s evidence-based guidelines, deliver timely care, and engage in quality improvement because our communities count on us to be there for them in a medical emergency.”

The Mission: Lifeline EMS achievement award focuses on on-scene care, bringing to the forefront the collaboration and contributions to patient care of prehospital providers. Englewood Health’s EMS is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services, a recognition of commitment to the highest standards in patient care, and the team responds to over 20,000 calls for service annually.

“Our emergency medical services teams can begin treatment for patients when they arrive, typically sooner than if patients drive themselves to the hospital,” says Richard Sposa, MA, NRP, MICP, director of EMS/Emergency Preparedness at Englewood Health. “This is critically important in time-sensitive emergencies, such as suspected heart attacks and stroke. I congratulate our entire EMS team on this national recognition for outstanding pre-hospital medical care.”

Kacey Kronenfeld, MD, FAEMS, chair of the American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline EMS Taskforce, said “Arguably the most important link in the chains of survival for acute stroke and cardiovascular emergencies is emergency medical services and prehospital professionals. Early condition identification, stabilization, and prehospital interventions, and initiation of actions within the regional systems of care, provide patients with the best chance for receiving expedient definitive therapies leading to optimal outcomes and maximized quality of life.”