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 OakBend Recognized for Quality Cardiac & Stroke Care
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RICHMOND, TX
- (July, 17, 2007) - OakBend Medical Center is one of 277 hospitals in
the United States being recognized in the July 23 issue of US News & World Report by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With the Guidelines SM (GWTG) program in an ad for its performance achievement in cardiac and stroke patient care.
The
American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s GWTG program
is a quality-improvement program that helps hospitals insure that
patients consistently receive cardiac and stroke care in accordance
with the most up-to-date guidelines and recommendations. 
GWTG
has three modules to help hospitals use evidence-based guidelines to
treat patients with coronary artery disease, stroke and/or heart
failure. Hospitals that continually meet or exceed the nationally
accepted standards, or guidelines, improve their quality patient care
by turning guidelines into lifelines.
Upon
meeting criteria specific to each module, hospitals are recognized for
performance achievement if at least 85 percent of their cardiac or
stroke patients (without contraindications) are treated and discharged
according to the American Heart Association/American Stroke
Association’s guidelines and recommendations. The American Heart
Association/American Stroke Association’s ad recognizes OakBend Medical
Center’s commitment and success in performance achievement.
“GWTG
is about improving quality of care and saving lives, so the American
Heart Association/American Stroke Association wanted to recognize
OakBend Medical Center’s ’s contribution to quality cardiovascular care
in a publication such as US News & World Report, which focuses its July issue on the top 100 hospitals. OakBend Medical Center
has implemented and maintained the appropriate standards of performance
in cardiac and stroke care for patients,” said Gregg C. Fonarow, M.D.,
American Heart Association volunteer chairman for the national GWTG
Steering Committee. “We are proud of OakBend Medical Center’s efforts
for implementing these lifesaving treatments.”
“OakBend
Medical Center is dedicated to making our patient care for heart and
stroke patients among the best in the country, and the American Heart
Association/American Stroke Association’s GWTG program is
helping us accomplish that by making it easier for our professionals to
improve the quality of care and long-term outcomes of our cardiac
patients,” said Amitabh Shukla, M.D. Board Certified in Neurology.
For further information contact: Tracey J. Shaw VP, Marketing & Development
(281 238 7821)
About GWTG:
Get With The GuidelinesSM (GWTG)
is the American Heart Association/ American Stroke Association’s
hospital-based program designed to ensure that patients are
consistently treated and discharged according to evidence-based
guidelines for coronary artery disease, heart failure, and stroke. This
quality improvement program empowers healthcare teams to save lives and
reduce healthcare costs through helping hospitals follow evidence-based
guidelines and recommendations for treating coronary artery disease,
heart failure, and stroke. Experience has shown that 80,000 lives could
be saved annually if the coronary artery disease (GWTG-CAD) module
alone of Get With The GuidelinesSM were implemented nationwide. GWTG was the first hospital-based program to receive the prestigious Innovation in Prevention Award
from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2004.
Currently almost 2,000 hospitals use one or more GWTG modules. GWTG-CAD
is supported by an unrestricted educational grant from the
Merck/Schering-Plough Pharmaceutical Partnership and GWTG- Heart
Failure is supported by an unrestricted grant from Glaxo Smith Kline,
Inc.
For more information, visit americanheart.org/getwiththeguidelines.
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