Friday, April 6, 2007 10:30 a.m. Placentia-Linda Hospital – Administration  

The recognition signifies that Placentia-Linda Hospital has reached an aggressive goal of treating heart failure patients with 85 percent compliance to core standard levels of care outlined by the American Heart Association College of Cardiology’s secondary prevention guidelines for heart failure patients.   Get With The GuidelinesSM  is a quality improvement initiative that provides hospital staff with tools that follow proven evidence-based guidelines and procedures for heart failure patients in their care to prevent future hospitalizations.   Under Get With The Guidelines-HF, heart failure patients are started on aggressive risk reduction therapies such as cholesterol-lowering drugs, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, aspirin, diuretics and anticoagulants in the hospital.  They also receive alcohol/drug use and thyroid management counseling and referrals for cardiac rehabilitation before being discharged.  Placentia-Linda Hospital has successfully implemented these quality measures for one quarter or 90 days.   According to the American Heart Association, about 5 million people suffer from heart failure.  Statistics also show the incidence of heart failure has not declined in two decades and each year more than 52,000 people will die of heart failure.     We hope you are able to attend.  If you are unable to attend, but would like to interview our Director of Quality Management, Fred Valtairo, I can arrange that for you as well and send photos after the presentation.   Thanks for your consideration!