Award demonstrates UCLA's commitment to quality care for heart failure patients
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center has received the Get With The Guidelines®-Heart Failure Gold Quality Achievement Award from the American Heart Association. The recognition signifies that UCLA has reached an exceptional goal of treating heart failure patients according to the guidelines of care recommended by the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology.
This marks the 3th year that Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center has been recognized with a heart failure quality achievement award.
Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure helps hospital staff develop and implement acute and secondary prevention guideline processes to improve patient care and outcomes. The program provides hospitals with a web-based patient management tool, best practice discharge protocols and standing orders, along with a robust registry and real-time benchmarking capabilities to track performance.
The quick and efficient use of guideline procedures can improve the quality of care for heart failure patients, save lives and ultimately, reduce healthcare costs by lowering the recurrence of heart failure hospitalizations.
"Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center is dedicated to making our care for heart failure patients among the best in the country. Programs like the American Heart Association's Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure program helps us to accomplish this goal," said Dr. Gregg C. Fonarow, director of the Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center and co-chief of clinical cardiology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "This recognition demonstrates that we are on the right track and we're very proud of our team."
Following Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure treatment guidelines, heart failure patients are started on evidence-based heart failure therapies if needed, including beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, and aldosterone antagonists while in the hospital. Before discharge, they also receive education on managing their heart failure and overall health, including lifestyle modifications and follow-up care. Hospitals must adhere to these measures at a set level for a designated period of time to be eligible for the achievement awards.
"Recent studies show that patients treated in hospitals participating in the American Heart Association's Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure program receive a higher quality of care and may experience better outcomes," 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. "Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center's team is to be commended for their commitment to improving the care of their patients."
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. However, many heart failure patients can lead a full, enjoyable life when their condition is managed with proper medications and devices and with healthy lifestyle changes.
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The UCLA Health has for more than half a century provided the best in health care and the latest in medical technology to the people of Los Angeles and the world. Comprised of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, UCLA Health - Santa Monica Medical Center, the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA, UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital and the UCLA Medical Group, with its wide-reaching system of primary care and specialty care offices throughout the region, the UCLA Health is among the most comprehensive and advanced health care systems in the world. For information about clinical programs or help in choosing a personal physician, call 800-UCLA-MD1 or visit www.uclahealth.org.
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.
