Kaiser’s Moanalua Medical Receives Heart Patient Award
By Sonia Isotov
Kaiser Permanente Hawaii’s Moanalua Medical Center in Honolulu has received the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award for excellence in the treatment of their heart patients that come to them from throughout Hawaii.
“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, M.D., 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 healthcare providers implement appropriate evidence-based care and protocols that will reduce disability and death and improve the quality of life for patients.”
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.
“It’s an honor to be recognized as one of the top hospitals in the nation in providing heart care,” said Dr. Paul Ho, 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 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.