Baraboo, April 11, 2008 — St. Clare Hospital has received the Get With The Guidelines^SM–Heart Failure (GWTG–HF) Silver Performance Achievement Award from the American Heart Association. The recognition signifies that St. Clare has reached an aggressive goal of treating heart failure patients with 85% compliance for one year to core standard levels of care as outlined by the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology secondary prevention guidelines for heart failure patients.

Get With The Guidelines is a quality improvement initiative that provides hospital staff with tools that follow proven evidence-based guidelines and procedures in caring for heart failure patients to prevent future hospitalizations.  According to GWTG–HF treatment guidelines, 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.

According to the American Heart Association, about 5.2 million people suffer from heart failure. Every year more than 57,000 people die of heart failure.                                                        

“St. Clare Hospital is dedicated to making our care for heart failure patients among the best in the country, says Lori Rudolph, coordinator of St. Clare’s heart failure program.  “We will continue in our efforts and build off the success of this award by continued implementation of the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines–Heart Failure program that allowed us to accomplish this goal,” said Rudolph.  “This quick and efficient use of guideline tools will help us improve the quality of care we give heart failure patients, save lives, and ultimately, reduce healthcare costs by lowering the recurrence of heart attacks.”