Marion General Hospital has received the Get With the Guidelines–Heart Failure (GWTG–Heart Failure) Gold Quality Achievement Award from the American Heart Association, according to a media release. Get With The Guidelines is a quality improvement initiative that provides hospital staff with tools that follow proven evidence-based guidelines and procedures in caring for heart failure patients to prevent future hospitalizations.
Officials say this recognition signifies that Marion General Hospital has reached an aggressive goal of treating heart failure patients with 85 percent compliance for at least 24 months to core standard levels of care as outlined by the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology secondary prevention guidelines for heart failure patients.
This is the fourth year that Marion General Hospital has earned this award.
Under GWTG–Heart Failure, heart failure patients are started on aggressive risk reduction therapies such as cholesterol-lowering drugs, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, aspirin, diuretics, and anticoagulants in the hospital. They also receive alcohol/drug use and thyroid management counseling as well as referrals for cardiac rehabilitation before being discharged.
"The full implementation of national heart failure guideline recommended care is a critical step in preventing recurrent hospitalizations and prolonging the lives of heart failure patients," said Lee H. Schwamm, MD, chair of the Get With The Guidelines National Steering Committee and director of the TeleStroke and Acute Stroke Services at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Mass. "The goal of the American Heart Association's Get With The Guidelines program is to help hospitals like Marion General implement appropriate evidence-based care and protocols that will reduce disability and the number of deaths in these patients. Published scientific studies are providing us with more and more evidence that Get With The Guidelines works. Patients are getting the right care they need when they need it. That’s resulting in improved survival."
“Our heart services team at Marion General Hospital continues to work very closely together in order to make the care we provide for our heart patients among the best in the country,” said Gail Loadman, director of emergency services and clinical excellence. “By continuing to follow the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure program, we are accomplishing our goal of improving the long-term outcome for our patients.”
GWTG–Heart Failure helps Marion General’s staff develop and implement acute and secondary prevention guideline processes. The program includes quality-improvement measures such as care maps, discharge protocols, standing orders and measurement tools. This quick and efficient use of guideline tools will enable Marion General to improve the quality of care it provides heart failure patients, save lives and ultimately reduce healthcare costs by lowering the recurrence of heart attacks.
The GWTG–Heart Failure module, developed with support from an unrestricted educational grant from GlaxoSmithKline, is being implemented in hospitals around the country.
For more information on Get With The GuidelinesSM, please visit americanheart.org/getwiththeguidelines.
Photo: The American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines–Heart Failure (GWTG–Heart Failure) Gold Quality Achievement Award was recently presented to Marion General Hospital. From left are Eric Wallis, Michelle Spiegel, Cindy Schifer, Darlene Davis-Postell, Debbie Prusaczyk, Start! Heart Walk director, AHA, Gail Loadman, Amy Parris, quality improvement initiatives director, AHA/ASA, Melodie Little, Pam Smith, and Lindsey Osting.
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