Cooley Dickinson Recognized for Cardiac and Stroke Care
NORTHAMPTON — Cooley Dickinson Hospital is one of 277 hospitals in the U.S. recognized in the July 23 issue of U.S. News & World Report by the American Heart Association / American Stroke Association’s Get With the Guidelines (GWTG) program in an ad for its performance achievement in cardiac and stroke patient care.
The GWTG program is a quality-improvement initiative that helps hospitals ensure that patients consistently receive cardiac and stroke care in accordance with the most up-to-date guidelines and recommendations.
GWTG has three modules to help hospitals use evidence-based guidelines to treat patients with coronary artery disease, stroke, and/or heart failure. Hospitals that continually meet or exceed the nationally accepted standards, or guidelines, improve their quality patient care by turning guidelines into lifelines.
Upon meeting criteria specific to each module, hospitals are recognized for performance achievement if at least 85{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} of their cardiac or stroke patients (without contraindications) are treated and discharged according to the American Heart Association / American Stroke Associ-ation’s guidelines and recommendations. The ad recognizes Cooley Dickinson’s commitment and success in performance achievement.
“GWTG is about improving quality of care and saving lives, so the American Heart Association / American Stroke Association wanted to recognize Cooley Dickinson Hospital’s contribution to quality cardiovascular care in a publication such as U.S. News & World Report, which focuses its July issue on the top 100 hospitals,” said Dr. Gregg C. Fonarow, American Heart Association volunteer chairman for the national GWTG Steering Committee.
Cooley Dickinson Hospital has implemented and maintained the appropriate standards of performance in cardiac and stroke care for patients.”
“It is a privilege to continue to be recognized nationally for Cooley Dickinson’s work in delivering quality care to our patients, and the American Heart Association / American Stroke Associ-ation’s GWTG program is helping us accomplish that by making it easier for our professionals to improve the quality of care and long-term outcomes of our cardiac patients,” said Donna Truesdell, director of quality improvement at CDH.