WJMC awarded the Get With The Guidelines Silver Performance Achievement Award by the AHA

West Jefferson Medical Center recently received the American Heart Association’s Get WithThe Guidelines–Coronary Artery Disease Silver Performance Achievement Award. The award recognizes West Jefferson’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of cardiac care that effectively improves treatment of patients hospitalized with coronary artery disease.

Under Get With The Guidelines–CAD, patients are started on aggressive risk-reduction therapies such as cholesterol-lowering drugs, aspirin, ACE inhibitors and beta-blockers in the hospital and receive smoking cessation/ weight management counseling as well as referrals for cardiac rehabilitation before they are discharged. Hospitals that receive the Get With The Guidelines-CAD Silver Performance Achievement Award have demonstrated for at least one year that 85 percent of its coronary patients (without contraindications) are discharged following the American Heart Association’s recommended treatment guidelines.

“The American Heart Association applauds West Jefferson Medical Center for its success in implementing the appropriate evidence-based care and protocols to reduce the number of recurrent events and deaths in cardiovascular disease patients,” said Gregg C Fonarow, M.D., National Chairman of the Get With The Guidelines Steering Committee and Director of Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center. “West Jefferson Medical Center has achieved a high level of performance in terms of implementing these life-prolonging treatments.”

“West Jefferson Medical Center is dedicated to making our cardiac program among the best in the country. The American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines program is helping us accomplish that by making it easier for our physicians, nurses and other health professionals to improve the long-term outcomes of our cardiac patients, “said Nancy R. Cassagne, Chief Executive Officer of WJMC. “We are very pleased to be recognized for our dedication and achievements in cardiac care. Our community is the real beneficiary.”

The American Heart Association’s Get WithThe Guidelines program is designed to increase the use of and adherence to the association’s secondary prevention guidelines for coronary artery disease. Developed to assist healthcare professionals follow proven standards and procedures before patients are discharged, Get With The Guidelines–CAD can help West Jefferson Medical Center reduce the risk of recurrent heart attacks and death in treated patients. The program, which works by mobilizing teams in acute care hospitals to implement American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology secondary prevention guidelines.

According to the American Heart Association, approximately 610,000 people suffer a new heart attack and 325,000 experience a recurrent heart attack each year. Statistics also show 1.26 million individuals are affected by CAD* each year. Additionally, one in five deaths in the United States is caused by CAD.