Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center has been honored by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association for its commitment to and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients.
The medical center was one of only 121 hospitals nationwide to be recognized for achieving the aggressive goal of treating acute myocardial infarction patients with high compliance to levels of care outlined by these two leading national organizations dedicated to promoting quality cardiovascular care and reducing mortality from heart disease.
The honor, known as the American College of Cardiology Foundation's NCDR ACTION Registry–GWTG Gold Performance Achievement Award, was created through the merger of the American College of Cardiology Foundation's registry and the American Heart Association's Get With the Guidelines–Coronary Artery Disease program.
"The time is right for us to be focused on improving the quality of cardiovascular care," said Dr. Gregg C. Fonarow, director of the Ahmanson–UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. "The number of acute myocardial infarction patients eligible for treatment is expected to grow over the next decade due to increasing incidence of heart disease and a large aging population."
To receive the award, the hospital consistently followed the treatment guidelines in the ACTION Registry–GWTG for 24 consecutive months. These included aggressive in-hospital use of medications like cholesterol-lowering drugs, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, aspirin and anticoagulants.
"We are dedicated to providing the highest level of care for our patients, including coronary care after a heart attack," said Dr. J. Thomas Rosenthal, chief medical officer and associate vice chancellor of the UCLA Health. "We are pleased to receive this prestigious recognition."
"The American College of Cardiology Foundation and the American Heart Association commend the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center for its success in implementing standards of care and protocols," said ACTION Registry–GWTG steering committee chair Dr. Christopher Cannon, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and an associate physician in the cardiovascular division of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
Fonarow, who is vice chair of the ACTION Registry–GWTG steering committee, noted that the full implementation of guideline-recommended acute and secondary prevention therapy is a critical step in saving the lives and improving outcomes of heart attack patients.
The merger of the ACTION Registry and the Get With the Guidelines–Coronary Artery Disease program combines the best of both in a single, unified national registry, bringing together the robust data collection and quality reporting features of the registry with the collaborative models, unique tools and quality improvement techniques of the GWTG program.
With the collective strengths of these two programs, the ACTION Registry–GWTG empowers health-care provider teams to consistently treat heart attack patients according to the most current science-based guidelines and establishes a national standard for understanding and improving the quality, safety and outcomes of care provided for patients with coronary artery disease, specifically high-risk STEMI and NSTEMI myocardial infarction patients.
The UCLA Health has been a leader in patient care, medical research and teaching for more than 50 years. Today, our physicians provide an array of cutting-edge and research-based primary and specialty services in four hospitals on two campuses, and in numerous outpatient clinic locations. Composed of the UCLA Hospital System and the UCLA Medical Group and its affiliates, the UCLA Health has provided the best in health care and the most advanced treatment options to the people of Southern California, the U.S. and the world. UCLA's preeminence in health care — a strength that comes from the union of research, teaching and excellence in patient care — continues to be recognized nationally and internationally. The clinical programs of Ronald Reagan UCLA Health - Santa Monica Medical Center–UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital, the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA, and UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital constitute a system of hospital care that has been ranked among the best in the nation. UCLA physicians and hospitals continue to be world leaders in the full range of care, from maintaining the health of families to the diagnosis and treatment of complex illnesses.
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