hospital receives performance award

     The American Heart Association recently recognized The University of Tennessee Medical Center with the Get with the Guidelines– Heart Failure Silver Performance Achievement Award.
     The recognition signifies that UT Medical Center reached an aggressive goal of treating heart failure patients with 85 percent compliance for one year to core standard levels of care as outlined by the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology secondary prevention guidelines for heart failure patients.
     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.
     According to Get With The Guidelines – Heart Failure treatment guidelines, heart failure patients are treated with aggressive risk-reduction therapies such as cholesterol-lowering drugs, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, aspirin, diuretics and anticoagulants in the hospital.
     Patients also receive counseling on the correct diet, smoking cessation, alcohol/drug use, thyroid management and medication compliance 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 Gregg C. Fonarow, M.D., National Chairman of the Get With The Guidelines Steering Committee and director of Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center. “The goal of the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines program is to help hospitals such as The University of Tennessee Medical Center implement appropriate evidence-based care and protocols that will reduce disability and the number of deaths in these patients.”
     According to the American Heart Association, about 5.7 million people suffer from heart failure. Statistics also show that each year more than 292,200 people will die of heart failure.
     “UT Medical Center is dedicated to making our care for heart failure patients among the best in the country,” said Dr. Dale Wortham, a UT Medical Center cardiologist practicing with University Cardiology. “The commitment to our patients by the Heart Lung Vascular Institute is evident through our opening of the region’s dedicated Heart Hospital this April and through our consistent work toward advancing patient care as the region’s only academic medical center. We will continue our efforts and build off the success of this award by continued implementation of the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines – Heart Failure program, which allowed us to accomplish this goal.”
     Get With The Guidelines – Heart Failure helps UT Medical Center’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 the medical center 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.