Elmhurst Hospital earns national recognition for heart failure program

Elmhurst Hospital has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association (AHA/ASA) Get With The Guidelines–Heart Failure Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award and been named to the AHA/ASA Target: Heart Failure Honor Roll for its excellence in the treatment of patients with heart failure.

“Elmhurst 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 guidelines,” says Parul Patel, RN, MS, MBA, Program Director, Cardiology Services, Elmhurst Hospital.

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.

Elmhurst Hospital earned the honors 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, including ACE inhibitors/ARBs, beta-blockers, diuretics, anticoagulants, and other appropriate therapies. Before patients are discharged, they also receive education on managing their heart failure and overall health, and schedule a follow-up visit.

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.

For more information about heart care at Elmhurst Hospital, visit www.emhc.org/services/cardiology. To find out if you’re at risk for heart disease, take Elmhurst Hospital’s free five-minute test at www.emhc.org/HealthAware.