Two Utah County hospitals are being honored by the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines program for their treatment of heart failure.
American Fork Hospital has received the Silver Quality Achievement Award while Utah Valley Regional Medical Center has received the Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award.
“This recognition signifies that both hospitals reached an aggressive goal of treating heart failure patients,” said Janet Frank, APR media manager of the Urban South Region.
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“We’re dedicated to making our care of heart failure patients among the best in the country,” said Maria Black, APRN, director of Heart Services at both facilities. “We know the education and tools patients receive in the hospital after a heart failure diagnosis are critical to managing the disease for the rest of their lives. Working with the Get With The Guidelines program has been very helpful in making our treatment plan successful.”
A few years back, heart failure was identified as an expensive chronic problem because 80 percent of the patients with heart failure are Medicare age. Government organizations estimated that in 2050, one of nine Americans will be over the age of 65, so it was recognized as an issue that needed to be look at.
Joint commissions and Medicare created what they called core measures for the management of heart failure. In addition, the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association go together with the Heart Failure Society of America and put together guidelines on how to manage the care of patients.
“Not only the medical management of the disease is important … because as a chronic disease, part of the managing process is also educating the patients on how they need to become active and informed and be part of their solution and self-management,” Black said.
Under GWTG-Heart Failure, heart failure patients in Utah County are put 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.
“For our Utah County community, these awards mean that they can feel confident with the treatment they are going to get here in Utah County,” Frank said. “I think we sometimes battle the perception that to get really good care we got to go to Salt Lake, this is another way to show that’s not true. The is good care up there, but also there is good care right here.”
According to the America Heart Association, about 5.7 million people suffer from heart failure. Statistics also show that 670,000 new cases are diagnosed annually and more than 227,000 people will die of heart failure.
“This is an incredible achievement for the community. We commend the hospitals because it shows they value their patients receiving the best care possible,” said Jennifer Merback, communications director of the American Heart Association in Utah.
Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure helps staff at American Fork Hospital and Utah Valley Regional Medical Center develop and implement acute and secondary prevention guideline process. the program includes quality-improvement measure such as care maps, discharge protocols, standing orders and measurement tools. This quick and efficient use of guideline tool enables the hospitals to improve the quality of care they provide heart failure patients, save lives and ultimately, reduce healthcare costs by lowering the recurrence of heart attacks.
Heart failure puts significant health and financial burdens on patients, their families and society as a whole. According to the American Heart Association, in 2008, the estimated total cost of heart failure in the United States was more than $35 billion.
“There are companies out there that can allow us to provide free medication for patients, if they can’t afford them,” Black said.
In 2003, when both hospitals started the program, the readmission rate of patients diagnosed with heart failure was a 20 percent average. Today’s rates of applying the guidelines on patients by readmitting five percent of the patients at 30 days and 10 percent on 90 days, half the nation’s average.
“It is important for the community to know that Intermountain Healthcare is following guidelines and providing quality care evidence-based heart failure management care,” Black said. “The recognition helps the community to know that we have taken the step to reach that level of care for them. Heart failure is a very overwhelming diagnosis. We take over to insure that the patients understand what the disease process is and how everyday activities can contribute or harm their diagnosis.”
