Valley City (CSi) CHI Mercy Hospital in Valley City is the first designated Acute Cardiac Ready facility in the state of North Dakota.

CHI Mercy Hospital spokeswoman Kayla Brademeyer said the designation means that our hospital has shown we can take care of patients upon arrival to the best of the state’s standards, specifically when it comes to cardiac issues. We take this appointment very seriously since such a high number of our patients present to the hospital with cardiac symptoms and diagnoses. This means we can further care for the community and provide everyone the top-notch, excellent services that they deserve.

She said in order to become an Acute Cardiac Ready Hospital, we filled out an application and had the Division of Emergency Medical Systems personnel come and shadow us to see our processes. They interviewed our ER staff to discuss our procedures and how we respond to certain situations. It was a rigorous test with 42 areas of criteria to pass in order to become designated. Due to our extensive preparedness, we had all the pieces in place and can now call the hospital an Acute Cardiac Ready facility, the first in North Dakota.

Valley City was already designated as a Cardiac Ready Community- which is a government initiative that requires public access to AEDs, CPR instruction, blood pressure screenings, and transport plans for first responders, EMS and the hospital. This initiative was also taken on to better the health of our community to try and introduce preventative care and access to necessary items in case of emergency.

Brademeyer said the hospital and its staff would like to thank Alana McClellan for putting in the work she has to help us achieve this. She has been the leader behind the Cardiac Ready Community projects as well as the Acute Cardiac Ready Hospital designation. She said, “we love how much she goes above and beyond to really make sure our community is heart healthy.”