LWMC Receives Heart Association’s “Get With the Guidelines” Gold Performance Achievement Award

LAKE WALES (Jan. 31, 2012) – Lake Wales Medical Center has received the Get With the Guidelines Heart Failure Gold Performance Achievement Award from the American Heart Association.

The recognition signifies that LWMC has reached an aggressive goal of treating heart failure patients with 85% compliance to core standard levels of care outlined by the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology secondary prevention guidelines for heart failure patients, for 24 consecutive months.

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 With The 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.

“Lake Wales Medical Center is dedicated to making our care for heart failure patients among the best in the country,” said Lee Clack, Chief Nursing Officer at LWMC.

Get With The Guidelines–Heart Failure helps LWMC’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 enables LWMC 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 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 C Fonarow, M.D., National Chairman of the Get With The Guidelines 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 Lake Wales 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 5.7 million people suffer from heart failure. Statistics also show each year more than 292,200 people will die of heart failure.