Twin Cities Community Hospital Receives 5th ‘Gold Plus’ Award for Heart Failure Care

PASO ROBLES, Calif. - Oct. 8, 2014 - PRLog -- Twin Cities Community Hospital has been recognized for the fifth time in a row by the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association (AHA/ASA) for its exceptional performance in delivering care to heart failure patients with a Get With The Guidelines^®–Heart Failure Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award.

     Gold Plus achievement signifies that for at least 24 months Twin Cities Community Hospital demonstrated 85 percent or higher adherence on all achievement measures applicable, and at least 75 percent or higher adherence on select quality measures in heart failure.

     “Achieving this significant accomplishment for our heart failure patients once again demonstrates the dedication and tenacity of the professionals that work here at Twin Cities Community Hospital,” says Twin Cities Community Hospital CEO Mark Lisa. “Together, we are preventing heart failure with the best possible scientific practices. Much more exciting is the realization that what we are doing is making a difference and enhancing lives in our community.”

     Numerous published studies demonstrate that the Get With The Guidelines–Heart Failure program achieves significant patient outcome improvements, such as reductions in 30-day readmissions. The program also provides hospitals with a web-based Patient Management Tool™ (powered by Quintiles Real-World & Late Phase Research), decision support, robust registry, real-time benchmarking capabilities as well as performance improvement methodologies.

     “Recent studies show that patients treated in hospitals participating in the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure program receive a higher quality of care and may experience better outcomes,” said Lee H. Schwamm, M.D., chair of the Get With The Guidelines National Steering Committee and director of the TeleStroke and Acute Stroke Services at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Mass. “Twin Cities Community Hospital’s team is to be commended for their commitment to improving the care of their patients.”

     Following Get With The Guidelines–Heart Failure treatment guidelines, Twin Cities Community Hospital’s heart failure patients are administered aggressive risk-reduction therapies if needed, including cholesterol-lowering drugs, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, aspirin, diuretics and anticoagulants. Before discharge, they also receive education on managing their heart failure and overall health, including lifestyle modifications and follow-up care. Hospitals must adhere to these measures at a set level for a designated period of time to be eligible for the achievement awards. As a Gold Plus recipient, Twin Cities recently appeared in the “Best Hospitals” issue of U.S. News & World Report.

For more informationabout Get With The Guidelines^®, visit heart.org/quality (http://www.heart.org/quality). For information about Twin Cities Community Hospital, please visit www.twincitieshospital.com or call Press Agency AR & Co. PR and Marketing at (805) 239-4443 or email pr@arandcompany.com.