Treatment of Heart Failure Patients Receives Award from American Heart Association

Utah Valley Regional Medical Center has received the Get With The GuidelinesSM–Heart Failure Gold Performance Achievement Award from the American Heart Association (AHA).

The recognition confirms Utah Valley Regional has reached an aggressive goal of treating heart failure patients, with 85 percent compliance for at least 24 months to core standard levels of care as outlined by the AHA/American College of Cardiology secondary prevention guidelines for heart failure patients. Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George, another Intermountain Healthcare facility, is the only other hospital in the state to receive the Gold Performance Award.

“Utah Valley Regional is dedicated to making our care for heart failure patients among the best in the country. Using the Get With The Guidelines program helps our team improve the long-term outcome for these patients,” said Maria Black, APRN, administrative director for Heart Services at Utah Valley Regional.

Black said the national 30-day re-admission rate for heart failure patients is 24.5 percent and climbs to 50 percent at six months. Utah Valley Regional’s 30-day re-admission rate is 2.7 percent and that number only increases to 4.8 percent for at six months because the hospital’s Heart Failure Team consistently uses the standards provided by the American Heart Association.

Under Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure standards, care providers give patients heart health and smoking cessation education as well as appropriate medications like beta blockers and ACE inhibitors that help improve the health of patients who have undergone heart treatment. Utah Valley Regional has successfully followed these quality guidelines for the two years.

According to the American Heart Association, about 5.7 million people suffer from heart failure. Statistics also show each year more than 292,200 people will die of heart failure.