ECMC recognized with Gold Plus Award for heart failure care by AHA
BUFFALO, NEW YORK—Erie County Medical Center (ECMC) Corporation has received the Get With The Guidelines©-Heart Failure Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association (AHA)/American College of Cardiology Foundation’s secondary prevention guidelines for patients with heart failure.
ECMC Corporation President and CEO Thomas J. Quatroche Jr., PhD said, “This recognition is a further confirmation that ECMC clinicians deliver ‘the gold standard’ of care for our heart failure patients, and implementing the AHA guidelines helps us to accomplish this goal by tracking and measuring our success. I commend our clinical teams for their dedication to consistently meet these high standards to improve the health of our patients and our entire community.”
National Chairman of the Get With The Guidelines Steering Committee and Professor of Medicine at Stanford University Paul Heidenreich, MD, MS, said, “We are pleased to recognize Erie County Medical Center for their commitment to heart failure care. Research has shown there are benefits to patients who are treated at hospitals that have adopted the Get With The Guidelines program. Get With The Guidelines research has demonstrated the impact of lowering 30-day readmissions and reducing mortality rates.”
Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure is a quality improvement program that helps hospital teams follow the most up-to-date, research-based standards with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing hospital readmissions for heart failure patients. Launched in 2005, numerous published studies have demonstrated the program’s success in achieving patient outcome improvements, including reductions in 30-day readmissions.
ECMC earned the award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of heart failure patients. These measures include evaluation of the patient, proper use of medications and aggressive risk-reduction therapies, such as ACE inhibitors/ARBs, beta-blockers, diuretics, anticoagulants, and other appropriate therapies. Before patients are discharged, they also receive education on managing their heart failure and overall health, get a follow-up visit scheduled, as well as other care transition interventions.
ECMC also received the association’s Target: Heart FailureSM Honor Roll. Target: Heart Failure is an initiative that provides hospitals with educational tools, prevention programs and treatment guidelines designed to reduce the risk of heart failure patients ending up back in the hospital. Hospitals are required to meet criteria that improves medication adherence, provides early follow-up care and coordination and enhances patient education. The goal is to reduce hospital readmissions and help patients improve their quality of life in managing this chronic condition.
According to the American Heart Association, about 5.7 million adults in the United States suffer from heart failure, with the number expected to rise to eight million by 2030. Statistics show that each year about 870,000 new cases are diagnosed and about 50 percent of those diagnosed will die within five years. However, many heart failure patients can lead a full, enjoyable life when their condition is managed with proper medications or devices and with healthy lifestyle changes.
ABOUT GET WITH THE GUIDELINES: Get With The Guidelines© is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program that provides hospitals with tools and resources to increase adherence to the latest research-based guidelines. Developed with the goal of saving lives and hastening recovery, Get With The Guidelines has touched the lives of more than 6 million patients since 2001. For more information, visit heart.org.
ABOUT ERIE COUNTY MEDICAL CENTER (ECMC) CORPORATION: The ECMC Corporation was established as a New York State Public Benefit Corporation and since 2004 has included an advanced academic medical center with 583 inpatient beds, on- and off-campus health centers, more than 30 outpatient specialty care services and Terrace View, a 390-bed long-term care facility. ECMC is Western New York’s only Level 1 Adult Trauma Center, as well as a regional center for burn care, behavioral health services, transplantation, medical oncology and head & neck cancer care, rehabilitation and a major teaching facility for the University at Buffalo. Most ECMC physicians, dentists and pharmacists are dedicated faculty members of the university and/or members of a private practice plan. More Western New York residents are choosing ECMC for exceptional patient care and patient experiences – the difference between healthcare and true care™.