December 20, 2010 — San Ramon Regional Medical Center has received the Get With The Guidelines®–Heart Failure Silver Performance Achievement Award from the American Heart Association. The recognition signifies that San Ramon Regional Medical Center has reached an aggressive goal of treating heart failure patients with 85 percent compliance for one year to core standard levels of care as 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 Get WithThe Guidelines–Heart Failure treatment guidelines, heart failure 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 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. “The goal of the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines program is to help hospitals like San Ramon Regional Medical Center implement appropriate evidence-based care and protocols that will reduce disability and the number of deaths in these patients. Published scientific studies are providing us with more and more evidence that Get With The Guidelines works. Patients are getting the right care they need when they need it. That’s resulting in improved survival.”
“San Ramon Regional Medical Center is dedicated to making our care for heart failure patients among the best in the country. We will continue in our efforts and build off the success of this award by continued implementation of the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines–Heart Failure program that allowed us to accomplish this goal,” said Gary Sloan, hospital CEO.
Get With The Guidelines–Heart Failure helps San Ramon Regional 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 San Ramon Regional 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.
According to the American Heart Association, about 5.7 million people suffer from heart failure. Statistics also each year more than 292,200 people will die of heart failure.
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ABOUT SAN RAMON REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER
San Ramon Regional Medical Center, part of Tenet California, is a 123-bed general acute care hospital located at 6001 Norris Canyon Road in San Ramon. Since its opening in 1990, the hospital has continued to provide increasingly advanced inpatient and outpatient medical and surgical services. San Ramon Regional has been among the leaders of minimally invasive surgical technology, such as the robotic-assisted daVinci™ Surgical System. Services include 24-hour Emergency Services, Cardiac Services, Blood Conservation Program, Cancer Services, Family Birthing Center with a Level II Neonatal Intensive Care Nursery, Joint Treatment Program, Occupational Medicine, Outpatient Therapy for children and adults, Outpatient Surgery Center, Spine Treatment Program, as well as Pediatric Program. A pediatrician from Children’s Hospital & Research Center in Oakland provides in-hospital pediatricians 24 hours daily at San Ramon Regional. San Ramon is fully accredited by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. www.OurSanRamonHospital.com
About Get With The Guidelines
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.