American Heart Association honors Fairfield Hospital

Mercy Health - Cincinnati, which provides advanced, quality care with compassion in your neighborhood through its care network, announces that Mercy Health – Fairfield Hospital has received the Get With The Guidelines®-Heart Failure Bronze Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology Foundation’s secondary prevention guidelines for the treatment of patients with heart failure.

“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 speeding recovery and reducing hospital readmissions for heart failure patients. Launched in 2005, numerous published studies have demonstrated the program’s success in achieving patient outcome improvements, including reductions in 30-day readmissions.

Fairfield Hospital 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 evaluation of the patient, proper use of medications and aggressive risk-reduction therapies. These would include ACE inhibitors/ARBs, beta-blockers, diuretics, anticoagulants and other appropriate therapies. Before the hospital discharges patients, they receive education on managing their heart failure and overall health, get a follow-up visit scheduled and as other care transition interventions.

“Fairfield Hospital is dedicated to improving the quality of care for our heart failure patients, and implementing the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure program helps us accomplish this goal by tracking and measuring our success in meeting internationally-respected clinical guidelines,” said Mercy Health Physician and cardiologist Lynne Wagoner, MD, who leads Mercy Health’s congestive heart failure program.

“Fairfield Hospital has long provided residents of Butler County and surrounding communities with top quality heart care close to home. This recognition from the American Heart Association is a testament to the talented team of heart specialists, including doctors, nurses and educators, who help patients manage a diagnosis of heart failure,” said Thomas Urban, Mercy Health North Market President and CEO.

“We are pleased to recognize Fairfield Hospital for its commitment to heart failure care,” said Paul Heidenreich, MD, MS, national chairman of the Get With The Guidelines Steering Committee and Professor of Medicine at Stanford University. “Research has shown there are benefits to patients who are treated at hospitals that have adopted the Get With The Guidelines program. Get With the Guidelines research has demonstrated the impact of lowering 30-day readmissions and reducing mortality rates.”

The American Heart Association has also recognized Mercy Health – West Hospital for excellence in heart failure care.

According to the American Heart Association, about 5.7 million adults in the United States suffer from heart failure, with the number expected to rise to eight million by 2030. Statistics show that each year about 870,000 new cases are diagnosed and about 50 percent of those diagnosed will die within five years. However, many heart failure patients can lead a full, enjoyable life when their condition is managed with proper medications or devices and with healthy lifestyle changes.