News

Get With The Guidelines

Mercy is listed as a Gold Award-winner in the annual “Best Hospitals” issue of U.S. News & World Report.

The award recognizes success in implementing Get With The Guidelines (GWTG), an in-hospital quality-improvement program from the American Heart Association (AHA) and American Stroke Association (ASA). Hospitals must have completed two or more years of participation at 85 percent or higher adherence to all performance measures to receive the Gold Award. The GWTG program helps ensure that the hospital’s treatment of coronary artery disease, heart failure or stroke is aligned with the most current scientific guidelines and evidence-based treatments and therapies.

The GWTG program saves more than an estimated 80,000 people annually, according to the AHA Web site.

There are three modules of the program:

• Get With The Guidelines-Coronary Artery Disease

• Get With The Guidelines-Stroke

• Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure

Mercy received recognition for outstanding achievement in all three areas.

“If you have to go to the hospital with a life-threatening illness, such as a heart attack or stroke, your decision should be based on that hospital’s commitment to providing quality care. Our data in the care of the heart attack and stroke patient speaks for itself. Our commitment is there with every patient, every day,” says Sue Dawson, clinical outcomes & research nurse-cardiac, Mercy Medical Center.

Anne Nugent, service line administrator for Heart, Lung and Vascular Services, Mercy Medical Center, echoes, “Receiving this award is a perfect example of what we mean by The Mercy Touch.™ Having Mercy listed in U .S. News and World Report is a great way to get the word out to the community that Mercy offers the highest quality of heart care possible. “The care our patients receive is our No.1 priority and we have partnered with our cardiologists to continuously review and improve processes involved in this care,” says Nugent.