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"American Heart Association Recognizes St. E's, St. Joe's"
"YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Humility of Mary Health announced today that its St. Elizabeth and St. Joseph health centers have been recognized by the American Heart Association for following evidence-based guidelines and procedures while caring for cardiac patients.The recognition designates the St. Elizabeth and St. Joseph medical centers as "Get With The Guidelines -- Coronary Artery Disease" hospitals. The heart association's quality improvement initiative is designed to support hospital staff with proven treatments.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 of coronary patients," said Gray Ellrodt, M.D., American Heart Association volunteer chairman for the national guidelines project. "The American Heart Association's program is designed to help hospitals like St. Elizabeth and St. Joseph implement appropriate evidence-based guidelines for care and protocols that will reduce the number of recurrent events and death in these patients."According to the American Heart Association, more than 450,000 Americans suffer recurrent heart attacks each year. Statistics also show that within six years after a heart attack, about 22% of men and 46% of women will be disabled with heart failure. Moreover, within one year of an attack, 25% of men and 38% 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 patient's risk of a second event is reduced and lives are saved."St. Elizabeth and St. Joseph are dedicated to making our cardiac unit among the best in the country, and implementing the American Heart Association's program will help us accomplish this by making it easier for our professionals to improve the long-term outcome for our cardiac patients," said Lisa Parish, HMHP vice president of service line management.The heart association's program is designed to help the hospitals' staffs develop and implement a secondary prevention guideline process. The program 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 the hospitals to improve the quality of for cardiac patients, save lives and ultimately, reduce health care costs by lowering the recurrence of heart attacks. Projections have shown that if guidelines programs were implemented nationwide, more than 80,000 lives could be saved each year, according to the heart association.The American Heart Association program, developed with support from an educational grant from Merck & Co. Inc., is being implemented in hospitals around the country. Visit us Humility of Mary Health Partners at www.Hmpartners.org."