CENTRAL CAROLINA HOSPITAL receives American Heart Association’s Award

May 9, 2013 - PRLog -- SANFORD, May 9, 2013 — Central Carolina Hospital has received the Get With The Guidelines®–Heart Failure Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award from the American Heart Association. The recognition signifies that Central Carolina Hospital has reached an exceptional goal of treating heart failure patients according to the guidelines of care recommended by the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology.  On the same day, Central Carolina Hospital also received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award.  The award recognizes Central Carolina Hospital’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of stroke care by ensuring that stroke patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted standards and recommendations.

Get With The Guidelines–Heart Failure helps Central Carolina Hospital’s staff develop and implement acute and secondary prevention guideline processes to improve patient care and outcomes. The program provides hospitals with a web-based patient management tool, best practice discharge protocols and standing orders, along with a robust registry and real-time benchmarking capabilities to track performance. The quick and efficient use of guideline procedures can improve the quality of care for heart failure patients, save lives and ultimately, reduce healthcare costs.

To receive the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award, Central Carolina Hospital achieved at least 12 consecutive months of 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality Achievement indicators and achieved at least 75 percent or higher compliance with six of 10 Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality Measures during that same period of time, which are reporting initiatives to measure quality of care.

“Recent studies show that patients treated in hospitals participating in the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure and Stroke Silver Plus programs 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. “Central Carolina Hospital’s team is to be commended for their commitment to improving the care of their patients.”

“Central Carolina Hospital is dedicated to making our care for heart failure and stroke patients among the best in the country. The American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines–Heart Failure and Stroke programs helps us to accomplish this goal,” said Doug Doris. “This recognition demonstrates that we are on the right track and we’re very proud of our team.”

About Central Carolina Hospital

Central Carolina Hospital is a 137-bed acute care hospital that serves the health care needs of Lee County and surrounding communities.  With over 100 physicians on staff, the hospital offers a wide range of specialties including cardiology, orthopedics, general surgery, obstetrics, gynecology, otolaryngology, emergency medicine, gastroenterology, hospitalist services, nephrology, hematology, urology, podiatry, dentistry, pulmonary medicine, primary care provider network, ear nose and throat (ENT) provider network, cardiology provider  network and a women’s care provider network.  Hospital services include emergency room, physical and occupational therapy, cardiac rehabilitation, diagnostic imaging and radiology, inpatient and outpatient surgery, maternity services, nutritional counseling by clinical dietitians, and diagnostic cardiac catheterization.

Committed to providing quality care to the community, the hospital has earned numerous disease-specific quality designations:

•    American Heart Association Get with the GuidelinesSM Gold Plus Performance Achieve¬ment Award for Heart Failure, January 2013
•    American Heart Association Get with the GuidelinesSM Gold Plus Performance Achieve¬ment Award for Stroke Silver Plus, January 2013
•    Joint Commission Advanced Certification for Heart Failure
•    Joint Commission Advanced Primary Stroke Certification
•    CIGNA Quality Center for Heart Failure

About Get With The Guidelines
Get With The Guidelines® is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program that empowers healthcare teams to save lives and reduce healthcare costs by helping hospitals follow evidence-based guidelines and recommendations.  For more information, visit heart.org/quality.

Crystal Hickman

Director of Public Relations

919-774-2187

E-mail crystal.hickman@tenethealth.com