Upstate University Hospital recognized with quality achievement award for heart failure care

SYRACUSE, N.Y.-- For the third consecutive year, Upstate University Hospital has received the Get With The Guidelines®-Heart Failure Gold-Plus Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology Foundation secondary prevention guidelines for heart failure patients.

“Upstate University Hospital is committed to improving the quality of care for our heart failure patients,” said Lorrie Langdon, RN, CHFN, coordinator of the Upstate Heart Failure Program. “Implementing the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure program helps us to accomplish this goal by tracking and measuring our success in meeting internationally respected guidelines.”

Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure is a quality improvement program that helps hospital teams provide the most up-to-date, research-based guidelines with the goal of improving quality of life and reducing hospital readmissions for heart failure patients.

Upstate earned the award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of heart failure patients at a set level for a designated period. These measures include proper use of medications and preventive interventions, such as assuring timely follow-up appointments and immunizations for these patients. Before patients are discharged, they also receive education on managing their heart failure and overall health.

“We are pleased to recognize Upstate University Hospital for its commitment to heart failure care,” said Deepak L. Bhatt, MD, MPH, national chair of the Get With The Guidelines steering committee and executive director of Interventional Cardiovascular Programs at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. “Studies have shown that hospitals that consistently follow Get With The Guidelines quality improvement measures can reduce patients’ length of stays and 30-day readmission rates and also reduce disparity gaps in care.”

According to the American Heart Association, about 5.1 million people suffer from heart failure. Each year, 670,000 new cases are diagnosed and more than 275,000 people will die of heart failure. However, many heart failure patients can lead a full life when their condition is managed with proper medications and devices and with healthy lifestyle changes.

In addition to the quality achievement award for heart failure, the Upstate Stroke Center also received the Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold-Plus Quality Achievement award in May from the American Heart/American Stroke associations and was named to the associations’ Target: Stroke Honor Roll.

Caption: Roseanne Hemmitt, director of quality and systems improvement for the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, center, presents the Get With the Guildelines Gold Plus award to Lorrie Langdon, left, coordinator of the Upstate Heart Failure Program, and Maureen Hartmann, Community Campus Heart Failure and Core Measure Compliance Coordinator, during a celebration at the Community Campus. Hemmitt also presented staff at the Downtown Campus with the Get With the Guidelines Gold Plus and Target Stroke Honor Roll award. The awards represent that Upstate is meeting and exceeding certain quality initiatives for stroke and heart failure care.