Health
- Last Updated on Monday, 04 July 2016 04:44
Monongahela Valley Hospital (MVH) received the Get With The Guidelines® — Heart Failure Bronze Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology Foundation’s secondary prevention guidelines for the treatment of patients with heart failure.
Get With The Guidelines — Heart Failure is a quality improvement program that helps hospital teams provide the most up-to-date, research-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing hospital re-admissions 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 re-admissions.
MVH earned the award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of heart failure patients at a set level for a designated period. These measures include evaluation of the patient, proper use of medications and aggressive risk-reduction therapies. These would include 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.
“Monongahela Valley Hospital is dedicated to improving the quality of care for our heart failure patients, and implementing the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines — Heart Failure program helps us accomplish this goal by being tracking and measuring our success in meeting internationally-respected clinical guidelines,” said Mary Lou Murt, MVH’s senior vice president and chief nursing officer.