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Hal Skopicki, MD, PhD, FACC, FAHA, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stony Brook University School of Medicine and Director of the Heart Failure and Cardiomyopathy Program at Stony Brook University Hospital, and Margaret Duffy, MS, RN, NEA-BC, Associate Director of Nursing for Cardiac Services at Stony Brook University Hospital, receive the Get With The Guidelines® Heart Failure Gold Quality Performance Achievement Award from Diana Barrett, CPHQ, Quality Improvement Initiatives for Long Island and New York City of the American Heart Association. Also pictured are representatives from the Department of Medicine, Cardiology Division; Continuous Quality Improvement; Decision Support Services; clinical nursing staff from Cardiology and Medicine; the Stony Brook University School of Nursing; Patient Education; and the Ventricular Assist Device program at Stony Brook University Hospital. Third from right is Edmund Hayes, PharmD, Assistant Director of Pharmacy at Stony Brook University Hospital and a member of the AHA’s Board of Directors.
Stony Brook University Hospital receives gold award for treatment of heart failure patients
National honor demonstrates commitment to quality care for heart failure patients
Stony Brook University Hospital has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines® Heart Failure (GWTG-HF) Gold Quality Performance Achievement Award for 2012. GWTG-HF is an evidence-based quality initiative that provides hospital staff with tools to care for heart failure patients and help prevent future hospitalizations.
“The goal of the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines program is to help hospitals like Stony Brook implement appropriate evidence-based care and protocols that will reduce disability and the number of deaths in these patients,” said Lee H. Schwamm, M.D., chair of the Get With The Guidelines National Steering Committee. “Published scientific studies are providing us with more and more evidence that Get With The Guidelines works. Patients are getting the right care they need when they need it.”
“Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure supports and enhances our team efforts to provide the highest quality of care to our heart failure patients,” said Hal Skopicki, MD, PhD, FACC, FAHA, Director of the Heart Failure and Cardiomyopathy Program at Stony Brook University Hospital.“This program helps to save lives, improves quality of life, and ultimately reduces healthcare costs.”
“Stony Brook University Heart Center strives to provide the best care for heart failure patients,” said Luis Gruberg, MD, FACC, Professor of Medicine at Stony Brook University School of Medicine, Interim Chief, Division of Cardiovascular Diseases, and Director of Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories at Stony Brook University Heart Center. “Implementing these guidelines helps us accomplish this goal, as we continue to improve long-term outcomes for our patients.”
According to the American Heart Association, about 5.7 million people suffer from heart failure. Statistics also show that, each year, 670,000 new cases are diagnosed and more than 277,000 people will die of heart failure.
For more information on Get With The Guidelines, visit www.americanheart.org/getwiththeguidelines.
