Mercy Health - Cincinnati, which provides advanced, compassionate, quality care in your neighborhood through its care network, announces that West Hospital has once again received the Get With The Guidelines®-Heart Failure Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award. The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association (AHA/ASA) also named West Hospital to the Target: Heart Failure Honor Roll again. In addition, West Hospital earned the Get With The Guidelines® - Stroke Silver Plus award from the AHA and the American Stroke Association (ASA). 

The hospital received the awards for its commitment to ensuring that heart failure and stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines founded in the latest scientific evidence.

West Hospital has now received Gold Plus and Honor Roll accolades for two consecutive years and this marks the fourth year in a row that the AHA/ASA has recognized West Hospital with quality achievement awards. 

“These awards are tangible evidence of West Hospital’s dedication to providing our heart failure and stroke patients with the highest quality care. The Get With The Guidelines - Heart Failure and Stroke programs have helped us to accomplish this goal by giving us the tools to track and measure our success in meeting internationally-respected guidelines,” said Michael Kramer, Mercy Health - West Market President and CEO. “I congratulate our heart care team for maintaining its singular focus on delivering top quality care that ensures our patients receive the best evidence-based treatments possible.” 

West Hospital earned the Gold Plus accolade for maintaining specific quality improvement measures outlined by the AHA/ASA secondary prevention guidelines for patients with heart failure. These measures include evaluation of the proper use of medications and aggressive risk-reduction therapies. 

The hospital earned its spot on the Target: Heart FailureSM Honor Roll by meeting specific criteria that improves medication adherence, provides early follow-up care and coordination and enhances patient education to help patients avoid hospital readmissions and improve their quality of life in managing this chronic condition.

West Hospital earned the Silver Plus award for evaluating the proper use of medications and other stroke treatments aligned with the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. 

Before discharge, both heart failure and stoke patients should also receive education on managing their health and get a follow-up visit scheduled, in addition to other care transition interventions.

“We are pleased to recognize West Hospital for its commitment to heart failure care,” said Eric E. Smith, MD, national chairman of the Get With The Guidelines Steering Committee and an associate professor of neurology at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. “Research has shown that hospitals adhering to clinical measures through the Get With The Guidelines quality improvement initiative can often see fewer readmissions and lower mortality rates.”

According to the AHA, more than 6.5 million adults in the United States are living with heart failure. Many heart failure patients can lead a full, enjoyable life when their condition is managed with proper medications or devices and with healthy lifestyle changes. According to the AHA/ASA, stroke is the number five cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the United States. On average, someone in the US suffers a stroke every 40 seconds and nearly 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.

The AHA/ASA has also recognized Mercy Health – Anderson, Clermont and Fairfield Hospitals for excellence in heart failure care.

Mercy Health – Anderson, Fairfield and West Hospitals and The Jewish Hospital – Mercy Health are Primary Stroke Accredited by the Joint Commission.