Medical City Healthcare life support programs earn top international honor

Medical City Heart Hospital and Medical City Plano have been recognized among the best in the world for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) therapy, which sustains life for patients with heart and lung failure.

The hospitals earned the elite Gold Level Center of Excellence Award from the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization, an international nonprofit that provides leadership in ECMO therapy. The award, effective for a three-year period beginning in January 2025, honors ECMO programs for extraordinary achievement in evidence-based quality measures, staff training, and ongoing clinical care for patients with cardio-respiratory system failure.

ECMO is a highly advanced form of life support that temporarily replaces the function of the heart and lungs by mechanically oxygenating blood outside the body, allowing the organs to rest. The therapy may be used for patients who have suffered:

• Cardiogenic shock, when the heart can’t pump enough blood
• Heart attack
• Respiratory failure

Medical City Healthcare is uniquely positioned to provide ECMO across North Texas. Because of the technology and skill required to use it, only a few hundred hospitals nationwide have the ability to perform ECMO, including Medical City Children’s Hospital, Medical City Heart Hospital, Medical City Fort Worth and Medical City Plano. Additionally, Medical City Healthcare has an advanced rapid ECMO deployment team that can provide portable therapy and transport from facilities that do not have ECMO capability.