FORT LAUDERDALE -- Florida Medical Center has received the Get With The GuidelinesSM Heart Failure Bronze Performance Achievement Award from the American Heart Association.
The recognition signifies that Florida Medical Center 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.
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 GWTG-Heart Failure treatment guidelines, 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 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 Gregg Fonarow, M.D., National Chairman of the GWTG Steering Committee and director of Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center.
"The goal of the American Heart Association's Get With The Guidelines program is to help hospitals like Florida Medical Center implement appropriate evidence-based care and protocols that will reduce disability and the number of deaths in these patients."
According to the American Heart Association, about 5.2 million people suffer from heart failure. Statistics also show each year more than 57,000 people will die of heart failure. "Florida Medical Center 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 will help us accomplish this by making it easier for our professionals to improve the long-term outcome for these patients,"said hospital CEO Bob Haley.
GWTG-Heart Failure helps Florida Medical Center's staff develop and implement acute and secondary prevention guideline processes. The program includes quality-improvement measures such as care maps, discharge protocols, standing orders and measurement tools. This quick and efficient use of guideline tools will enable Florida Medical Center to improve the quality of care it provides heart failure patients, save lives and ultimately, reduce healthcare costs by lowering the recurrence of heart attacks.
The GWTG-Heart Failure module, developed with support from an unrestricted educational grant from GlaxoSmithKline, is being implemented in hospitals around the country.
Florida Medical Center, part of Tenet's Miami-Dade/Broward Health Network, is a 459-bed acute care hospital founded in 1973 and fully accredited by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.
Located at 5000 West Oakland Park Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale in western Broward County, Florida Medical Center offers a broad range of medical and surgical services. These services include the Heart Institute of Florida, its center for cardiac services, designated a Premium Cardiac Specialty Center by UnitedHealthcare; 24-hour emergency services; and cancer care.
Additional services include orthopedics, neurology and neurosurgery, urology, psychiatry, gynecology, imaging, pain center, sleep lab and wound care.