BMC Receives Honor from Cardiology Foundation

PITTSFIELD — Berkshire Medical Center has received the American College of Cardiology Foundation’s NCDR ACTION Registry – GWTG (Get with the Guidelines) Gold Performance Achievement Award for 2011, one of only 167 hospitals nationwide to be so honored. The award recognizes BMC’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart-attack patients, and signifies that BMC has reached an aggressive goal of treating these patients to standard levels of care as outlined by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Assoc. clinical guidelines and recommendations.

The ACTION Registry – GWTG is the successor to the American Heart Assoc. Get with the Guidelines Coronary Artery Disease program, in which BMC was recognized with gold honors for nine consecutive years. The ACTION Registry – GWTG honor now marks 10 straight years of recognition for BMC in the care of cardiac patients.

To receive the ACTION Registry – GWTG Gold Performance Achievement Award, BMC consistently followed the treatment guidelines in ACTION Registry – GWTG for eight consecutive quarters and met a performance standard of 85{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} for specific performance measures. Following these treatment guidelines improves adherence to ACC/AHA clinical guideline recommendations and monitors drug safety and the overall quality of care provided to ST-elevation myocardial infarction and non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction patients.

“The American College of Cardiology Foundation and the American Heart Assoc. commend Berkshire Medical Center for its success in implementing standards of care and protocols. The full implementation of acute and secondary prevention guideline-recommended therapy is a critical step in saving the lives and improving outcomes of heart attack patients,” said Dr. Gregg Fonarow, ACTION Registry – GWTG steering committee chair and director of Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center; and Dr. James Jollis, ACTION Registry – GWTG co-chair and professor of Medicine and Radiology at Duke University Hospital.

“The time is right for BMC to be focused on improving the quality of cardiovascular care by implementing ACTION Registry – GWTG,” said Dr. Gray Ellrodt, chief quality officer of BMC. “The number of acute myocardial infarction patients eligible for treatment is expected to grow over the next decade due to increasing incidence of heart disease and a large aging population. This recognition is a reflection of the commitment of our clinical team at BMC to provide only the highest level of care to our patients.”