Press Releases: Hawaii
July 1, 2011
Kaiser Permanente’s Moanalua Medical Center Receives ‘Get with the Guidelines®’ Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award
Award Demonstrates Kaiser Permanente’s Commitment to Quality Care for Heart Failure Patients
HONOLULU — Kaiser Permanente’s Moanalua Medical Center has received the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines®—Heart Failure Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award for excellence in the treatment of patients with heart failure.
Get With The Guidelines is a quality improvement initiative that provides hospital staff with tools that follow proven evidence-based guidelines and procedures in caring for heart failure patients to improve outcomes, prevent future hospitalizations and prolong life.
Under Get With The Guidelines — Heart Failure, 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, as well as referrals for cardiac rehabilitation before being discharged.
“Kaiser Permanente’s Moanalua Medical Center team is to be commended for this commitment to improving the quality of care for their patients,” said Lee H. Schwamm, MD, 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. “The goal of the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines program is to help health care providers implement appropriate evidence-based care and protocols that will reduce disability and death and improve the quality of life for patients.”
“It’s an honor to be recognized as one of the top hospitals in the nation in providing heart care,” said Paul Ho, MD, chief of Cardiology, Moanalua Medical Center. “Our evidence-based, coordinated care allows us to do more than just stabilize an acute condition. Before a patient leaves Moanalua, we work on reducing or eliminating causes of heart failure and guide our patients to recovery and long-term improvements.”
This award is given only to hospitals that achieve 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines—Heart Failure Quality Achievement indicators for two or more consecutive 12-month intervals, and that have achieved 75 percent or higher compliance with four of nine Get With The Guidelines—Heart Failure Quality Measures to improve quality of patient care and outcomes.
This high-tech, evidence-based approach aligns with Kaiser Permanente’s patient-centered care model. The model improves the quality of care provided to heart failure patients, saves lives, and ultimately, reduces health care costs by avoiding rehospitalization.
According to the American Heart Association, about 5.7 million people suffer from heart failure. Statistics also show that, each year, 670,000 new cases are diagnosed and more than 277,000 people will die of 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.
About Kaiser Permanente Hawaii
Kaiser Permanente Hawaii has provided total health to the people of Hawaii for more than 50 years. Care for members is focused on their total health being guided by their personal physicians, specialists, and team of caregivers. Expert care and medical teams are supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery, and world-class chronic disease management. Its physicians are members of the Hawaii Permanente Medical Group, the largest and most experienced multi-specialty physician group practice in the state of Hawaii. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education, and the support of community health. Visit kp.org for additional information.
