Marion General Hospital has received two American Heart Association awards - Get With The Guidelines-Coronary Artery Disease (GWTG-CAD) Silver Performance Achievement Award and the Get With the Guidelines-Heart Failure (GWTG-HF) Silver Performance Achievement Award. These recognitions signify that Marion General Hospital has reached an aggressive goal of treating heart failure patients as outlined by the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology secondary prevention guidelines for heart failure patients. The awards also recognize Marion General Hospital’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of cardiac care that effectively improves treatment of patients hospitalized with coronary artery disease.

To receive these awards, the hospital consistently complied with the requirements in the GWTG-CAD and HF programs. Under the programs, patients are started on aggressive risk reduction therapies such as cholesterol-lowering drugs, aspirin, ACE inhibitors and beta-blockers in the hospital and receive alcohol/drug use and thyroid management counseling, smoking cessation and weight management counseling, and referrals for cardiac rehabilitation before they are discharged. Hospitals that receive the award have demonstrated that for one year, 85 percent or more of its eligible coronary patients (without contraindications) are discharged following the American Heart Association’s recommended treatments.

“The full implementation of national heart failure guideline recommended care is a critical step in preventing recurrent hospitalizations and prolonging the lives of heart failure patients,” said Gregg C. Fonarow, M.D., National Chairman of the GWTG Steering Committee and director of Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center. “The goal of the American Heart Association’s Get With the Guidelines program is to help hospitals like Marion General implement appropriate evidence-based care and protocols that will reduce disability and the number of deaths in these patients.”

“Marion General Hospital is dedicated to making our care for heart failure and coronary artery disease patients among the best in the country,” said Bob White, director of Marion General’s heart services. “We will continue in our efforts and build off the success of these awards by continued implementation of the American Heart Association’s Get With the Guidelines – Heart Failure and Coronary Artery Disease programs that allowed us to accomplish this goal.”

The American Heart Association’s GWTG-CAD and GWTG-HF programs are designed to increase the use of and adherence to the association’s secondary prevention guidelines for coronary artery disease. Developed to assist healthcare professionals follow proven standards and procedures before patients are discharged, these programs can help Marion General reduce the risk of recurrent heart attacks and death in treated patients. The GWTG-CAD program, which works by mobilizing teams in acute care hospitals to implement American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology secondary prevention guidelines, was developed with support from an unrestricted educational grant from Merck & Co., Inc. The heart failure module, developed with support from an unrestricted educational grant from GlaxoSmithKline, is being implemented in hospitals around the country.

According to the American Heart Association, approximately 565,000 people suffer a new heart attack and 300,000 experience a recurrent heart attack each year. Statistics also show that within one year of an attack, 18 percent of men and 23 percent of women will die. Within five years after a heart attack, about 33 percent of men and 43 percent of women will be disabled with heart failure.