NASSAU UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER RECEIVES AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION’S GET WITH THE GUIDELINES BRONZE QUALITY ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 27, 2011
PRESS CONTACT:
Shelley Lotenberg
shelley@numc.edu
516-572-6055
Nassau University Medical Center Receives American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines Bronze Quality Achievement Award
EAST MEADOW, NY…Arthur A. Gianelli, President/CEO of the NuHealth System announces that the Nassau University Medical Center has received the Get With The Guidelines®-Heart Failure Bronze Quality Achievement Award from the American Heart Association. 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. According to Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure treatment guidelines, 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 award is valid through December 2012.
“Congratulations to the cardiology department, under the leadership of chairman Sanjay Doddamani, MD, FASE, FACC, heart failure director Deborah Ahern, ANP and her team of nurses, the Quality Management Department under the leadership of Maureen P. Shannon, the hospitalist service under the leadership of Jose Mejia, MD, FACP, and to the internal medicine residency program under residency director Prachi Anand, MD, FACP, upon achieving this significant recognition from the American Heart Association,” said Gianelli. “The recognition signifies that NUMC has reached an aggressive goal of treating heart failure patients for at least 90 days with 85 percent compliance to core standard levels of care outlined by the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology secondary prevention guidelines for heart failure patients.”
“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, M.D., 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 NUMC 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.”
“NUMC is dedicated to making our care for heart failure patients among the best in the country, and implementing the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure program is helping us accomplish this by making it easier for our professionals to improve the long-term outcome for these patients,” said Steven J. Walerstein, MD, FACP, NuHealth’s executive vice president for medical affairs and medical director.
Dr. Doddamani added: “Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure helps us to implement processes that ensure superior care at every step of the patient’s hospitalization and back into the home. This quick and efficient use of guideline tools will not only save lives but ultimately reduce healthcare costs”.
According to the American Heart Association, about 5.7 million people suffer from heart failure. Statistics also show that, each year, 670,000 new cases are diagnosed and more than 277,000 people will die of heart failure.
About Get With The Guidelines
Get With The Guidelines® is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program that empowers healthcare teams to save lives and reduce healthcare costs by helping hospitals follow evidence-based guidelines and recommendations. For more information, visit heart.org/quality.
About NuHealth:
NuHealth is a Long Island health care organization delivering essential medical care and disease and lifestyle management to everyone at every stage of life. Formerly known as Nassau Health Care Corporation, NuHealth is a public benefit corporation managing the operations of Nassau Medical Center, A. Holly Patterson Extended Care and a network of Family Health Centers that bring primary and specialty care out into the community. By emphasizing wellness, cultural sensitivity and collaborative efforts with the North Shore-LIJ Health System, NuHealth is working to make good care more affordable and easier to access.
For more information about NuHealth or its Centers of Care, visit www.nuhealth.net.