Cincinnati (June 1, 2016) - The Christ Hospital is proud to announce it has received the Get With The Guidelines® – Heart Failure Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award. The award recognizes top health institutions for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology Foundation prevention guidelines for heart failure patients.
Heart failure is often difficult-to-control for the 5.1 million of Americans affected. The complex condition is the leading cause of hospitalizations among adults age 65 and over and nearly one in four of these patients are re-hospitalized within 30 days of discharge. The result is $39.2 billion in health care costs—an astounding number on the rise. According to the American Heart Association, 670,000 new heart failure cases are diagnosed each year.
The Christ Hospital is transforming heart failure care through innovative treatment approaches, the implementation of quality improvement guidelines for medical staff, increased patient education and a telemedicine program, all designed to improve patient care and reduce heart failure-related hospital admissions.
“Our approach is to provide patients with the most advanced and effective treatment options, as well as resources to help keep them healthy, especially when they are most vulnerable—during that 30-day window following a hospitalization,” said Santosh G. Menon, M.D., Medical Director, The Christ Hospital Heart Failure Network.
For The Christ Hospital, the program has led to quality improvement, helped care teams provide the most up-to-date, research-based guidelines in treatment while speeding recovery and reducing hospital readmissions for heart failure patients. In addition, The Christ Hospital has partnered with Brookwood Retirement Community in an innovative research study using telemedicine technology to provide heart failure patients live audio and visual interaction with a heart failure specialist at The Christ Hospital. This program pairs together the region’s most experienced heart failure management team with a best in class rehab facility, providing advanced, convenient care. The technology provides sophisticated monitoring from the comfort of the patient’s home or facility following a heart failure-related hospitalization. Heart failure is best treated with consistent management, which relies on close monitoring and frequent communication with a heart failure physician. Sensory devices relay real time health information, such as heart rhythm, blood pressure, and respiratory rates and transmission technology enables a physician to listen to a patient’s heart and lungs through a stethoscope, from miles away. The study is evaluating the use of telemedicine technology in providing better health management, reduction of unnecessary hospitalizations and less time during hospital stays for heart failure patients.
“We are the only hospital in the region with a multidisciplinary team of heart failure specialists and a dedicated heart failure hospital unit. Our level of specialization allows us to provide a wide range of treatments for patients at every stage of the condition, said Greg Egnaczyk, heart failure specialist at The Christ Hospital. “From optimum medical management to offering Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) treatment to extend the lives of severe heart failure patients in need of a transplant, we’re leading the way in the improvement of heart failure management.”
About The Christ Hospital Health Network: The Christ Hospital Health Network is an acute care hospital located in Mt. Auburn with five ambulatory centers and 181 neighborhood offices conveniently located throughout the Greater Cincinnati area. Its mission is to improve the health of the community and to create patient value by providing exceptional outcomes, affordable care and the finest experiences. Led by the region’s Most Preferred Hospital (National Research Corporation) for 20 consecutive years, the network is dedicated to transforming care by delivering integrated, individualized healthcare and wellness services through its comprehensive physician network and advanced specialty service. The Christ Hospital is among only 6% of hospitals in the nation to be awarded Magnet recognition for nursing excellence and among the top 5% of hospitals in the country for patient satisfaction. For more than 125 years, The Christ Hospital has provided compassionate care to all those it serves.
About The Lindner Research Center: For the past 25 years, The Carl and Edyth Lindner Center for Research and Education (Lindner Research Center) has provided leading-edge medicines and medical technology research covering a broad spectrum of conditions from obesity, diabetes, coronary disease, hypertension and hyperlipidemia to new vascular interventional devices, adult stem cell therapies, structural heart disease, cardiovascular surgery, heart failure and electrophysiology. Physicians at the Lindner Research Center have conducted more than 1,300 clinical trials including multiple first-in-man and first-in-the-U.S procedures, which have contributed to best practice standards for the care of patients. For information on current trials, please call 513-585-1777.