DALLAS, March 5 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Heart Association has developed a quality improvement program to help hospitals consistently implement guidelines to improve care -- and save lives -- of heart failure patients. Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure (GWTG-HF), will launch nationally March 6-8, at the American College of Cardiology conference in Orlando, Fla. GWTG-HF is based on guidelines jointly developed by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology.
“The goal of Get With The Guidelines(SM) and the new heart failure module is to educate and empower healthcare teams to save lives and reduce healthcare costs by closing the gap between what we know about heart failure and the care that is delivered to patients,” said Gregg Fonarow, M.D., chairman of the GWTG Science Sub-Committee and director of Ahmanson - UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center in Los Angeles. “Hospitalization for heart failure can serve as a teachable moment for patients and health care providers to ensure eligible patients are started on and continue on guideline recommended therapies.” GWTG-HF is supported by an unrestricted educational grant from GlaxoSmithKline.
Congestive heart failure affects nearly 5 million Americans and is the most frequent cause of hospitalization for patients over 65. Yet, many of these patients are not being treated and discharged according to guidelines. This may lead to a significant number of unnecessary and costly hospitalizations of heart failure patients.
Reducing risk of secondary events is critical considering that hospital discharges for congestive heart failure rose from 377,000 in 1979 to 970,000 in 2002, a 157 percent increase. In 1999, $3.6 billion or $5,456 per discharge went to Medicare beneficiaries for congestive heart failure, according to Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “Implementing GWTG-HF in hospitals nationwide can decrease costs by reducing the number of shorter- term recurrent episodes as well as improve long-term outcomes, while meeting JCAHO ORYX core measurement reporting requirements for heart failure,” Fonarow said.
Core components of GWTG includes in-hospital initiation of evidence-based heart failure therapies; quality improvement training through collaborative workshops to help hospitals create an infrastructure and multidisciplinary team; facilitation of best practices sharing; implementation and decision- support tools, such as a Web-based Patient Management Tool that generates real-time reports to benchmark performance on key quality indicators and provides access to updated cardiovascular science; and patient education materials customized to their individual risk profile. More than 800 U.S. hospitals are participating in GWTG existing modules already developed for coronary artery disease and stroke.
Any hospital can participate in GWTG-HF, and it’s an easy transition for hospitals that may have participated in the OPTIMIZE-HF (Organized Program to Initiate Lifesaving Treatment in Hospitalized Patients with Heart Failure) registry. OPTIMIZE-HF registry has reached its objectives, and now, GWTG-HF provides hospitals with a long-term solution for improving the management of hospitalized heart failure patients.
“OPTIMIZE-HF substantiates significantly improved quality of care and outcome benefits of implementing heart failure guidelines in the hospital setting. It lays the foundation for taking and transforming registry information into quality improvement opportunities under the GWTG-HF program,” said Fonarow. Studies and analyses from the OPTIMIZE-HF program that examine treatment disparities for both age and gender will be presented during the 2005 ACC meeting.
For more information about GWTG-HF, visit http://www.americanheart.org/gwtg-hf or email guidelineinfo@heart.org .
Editors note: Get With The Guidelines poster presentation, Does the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines Program Improve the Quality of Cardiovascular Care in Hospitalized Patients Undergoing Revascularization is scheduled Tuesday, March 8, 11 a.m.- Noon at ACC.
OPTIMIZE presentations include Does Patient Age Impact the Use of Evidence-based Heart Failure Therapies at Hospital Discharge, Monday, March 7, 1:30-2:30 p.m., Can Gender Related Disparities in the Use of Evidence-based Therapies for Heart Failure Be Reduced, Monday, March 7, 1:30-2:30 p.m. and Impact of Evidence-based Heart Failure Therapy Use at Hospital Discharge on Treatment Rates During Follow-Up, Tuesday, March 8, 10:45-11 a.m. and featured during a news conference, Wednesday, March 9, 11 a.m.- Noon.
American Heart Association
CONTACT: Patricia Beatty-Gonzalez, +1-214-706-1285, or cell,+1-817-846-7662, or patricia.beattyg@heart.org , or Toiya Honore,+1-214-706-1456, or toiya.honore@heart.org , both of American HeartAssociation