Doctors Medical Center announced it has received recognition from the American Heart Association as a Get With The GuidelinesSM – Coronary Artery Disease hospital. The recognition signifies that Doctors Medical Center is participating in the American Heart Association Get With The GuidelinesSM program. The quality improvement initiative is designed to reduce the risk of recurrent heart attacks by helping hospital staff follow proven evidence based guidelines and procedures while coronary patients are in their care.
Under the program, coronary patients are started on aggressive risk reduction therapies such as cholesterol-lowering drugs, aspirin, ACE inhibitors and beta-blockers in the hospital and receive smoking cessation and weight management counseling and referrals for cardiac rehabilitation before being discharged. These standards of care are outlined in the American Heart Association / American College of Cardiology secondary prevention guidelines for patients with coronary artery disease.
“The full implementation of secondary prevention guidelines is a critical step in saving the lives or coronary patients,” said Kenneth A. LaBresh, M.D., member of the American Heart Association’s Get With The GuidelinesSM Steering Committee. “The American Heart Association’s Get With The GuidelinesSM program is designed to help hospitals like Doctors Medical Center implement appropriate evidence based guidelines and protocols that will help reduce the number of recurrent events and death in these patients.”
According to the American Heart Association, more than 450,000 people suffer recurrent heart attacks each year. Statistics also show that within six years after a heart attack, about 22 percent of men and 46% of women will be disabled with heart failure. Within one year of an attack, 25 percent of men and 38 percent of women will die.
Research indicates that when patients are discharged from the hospital on appropriate medications such as aspirin, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors and lipid-lowering medicines, a patients’ risk of a second event is reduced and lives are saved.
“Doctors Medical Center is dedicated to delivering high quality care for our community and we are pleased to step forward and participate in the Get With The GuidelinesSM program. We feel that this program will make it easier for our professionals to improve the long-term outcome for our cardiac patients,” said Tim Joslin, Chief Executive Officer.
Get With The GuidelinesSM includes quality-improvement measures such as care maps, discharge protocols, standing orders and measurement tools. Designed to be quick and efficient, these guideline tools will enable Doctors Medical Center to improve the quality of care it provides cardiac patients, save lives and ultimately, reduce healthcare costs by lowering the recurrence of heart attacks.
Doctors Medical Center of Modesto (DMC) is a part of Tenet California, the state’s largest hospital system. DMC is a 398-bed acute care hospital, offering a wide range of services including cardiology, neurology, emergency and trauma services, air ambulance, women and children’s services, orthopedics, medical/surgical, oncology, and critical/intensive care. DMC employs more than 2,000 employees and has over 500 physicians on staff. DMC is fully accredited by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the nation’s oldest and largest hospital accreditation agency. To learn more about Doctors Medical Center of Modesto visit www.dmc-modesto.com