PVHMC Receives Get With The Guidelines Quality Achievement Awards for Exceptional Heart Failure & Stroke Care

Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center(PVHMC) has received the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Heart Failure Gold Plus and Stroke Care Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award. The awards recognize the hospital’s commitment to ensuring heart failure and stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines founded in the latest scientific evidence. The goal is speeding recovery and reducing death and disability.

PVHMC earned the awards by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of heart failure and stroke patients at a set level for a designated period. These measures include evaluation of the proper use of medications and aggressive risk-reduction therapies aligned with the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines.Before discharge, patients should also receive education on managing their conditions and overall health.Patients get a follow-up visit scheduled, as well as other care transition interventions.

“PVHMC is dedicated to improving the quality of care for our patients with heart failure and stroke by implementing the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines initiatives,” said President and CEO Richard E. Yochum, FACHE.“The tools and resources provided help us track and measure our success in meeting evidenced-based clinical guidelines developed to improve patient outcomes.”

PVHMC is also recognized on the association’s Target: Stroke Honor Roll. To qualify for the Target: Stroke Honor Roll, hospitals must meet quality measures developed to reduce the time between the patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with the clot-buster tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke.

As a designated Comprehensive Stroke Center, Chest Pain Center and STEMI Receiving Center,PVHMC has also met specific scientific guidelines featuring a comprehensive system for rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke and heart failure patients admitted to the emergency department.

“We are pleased to recognize PVHMC for their commitment to cardiovascular care,” said Lee H. Schwamm, M.D., national chairperson of the Quality Oversight Committee and Executive Vice Chair of Neurology, Director of Acute Stroke Services, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. “Research has shown that hospitals adhering to clinical measures through the Get With The Guidelines quality improvement initiative can often see fewer readmission and lower mortality rates.”

According to the American Heart Association, more than 6.5 million adults in the United States are living with heart failure. 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.Stroke is also the No. 5 cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the United States. On average, someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke every 40 seconds and nearly 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.