Mission: Lifeline® EMS Recognition

Mission: Lifeline EMS recognition is a program designed to showcase prehospital agencies nationwide for excellence in heart attack and stroke care. Prehospital personnel are the first care providers to patients suffering from acute emergencies. Your role in the care system for these patients is crucial and often sets the course for the patient’s outcome. The Mission: Lifeline EMS recognition program was launched in 2014 and continues to celebrate the achievement of the prehospital providers and their collaboration with each other and hospitals specific to patient care.

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? 
2023 Award Winners

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:

Application Period

  • February 22nd, 2024 – May 31st, 2024 - 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 specific, individual questions about your application. Data reviews are available upon request by emailing [email protected].

How to Apply

  1. If you were unable to attend the webinar you can access the webinar recording and materials through the registration link by re-registering. You can also view the webinar slide deck. Review the following documents:
  2. Register your agency.
    • All agencies that have previously applied will register as a new user in this system with your agency’s current data.
    • Information on how to add multiple users can be found within the webinar materials.
  3. Once you receive confirmation of your account (you will receive email confirmation within 3-5 business days) you can log back into the QCT portal and start on inputting your measure data

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.
  • QCT User Manual 

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.

Interested in Mission: Lifeline EMS Recognition? |  Learn more

Last Reviewed: Feb 22, 2023