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Lowell General Hospital is Recognized by American Heart Association

Lowell General Hospital is honored for implementing quality cardiac care guidelines

Lowell, MA - Lowell General Hospital is one of 118 hospitals in the United States recently recognized at Scientific Sessions 2006 by the American Heart Association's Get With the Guidelines (GWTG) program. The recognition event honoring performance achievement in cardiac patient care at Lowell General Hospital was held on November 13 in Chicago. Additional recognition detailing the accomplishments of the hospital can be seen in the December issue of the publication Circulation.

The American Heart Association Association's GWTG program is a quality-improvement program that helps hospitals insure patients consistently receive cardiac 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 percent of their cardiac patients (without contraindications) are treated and discharged according to the American Heart Association's guidelines and recommendations. The American Heart Association ad recognizes Lowell General Hospital's commitment and success in performance achievement.

"GWTG is about saving lives, so the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association wanted to recognize Lowell General Hospital's contribution to quality care at the largest meeting of cardiac professionals. Lowell General has implemented and maintained the appropriate standards of protocol in cardiac care for patients," said Gregg C. Fonarow, M.D., American Heart Association volunteer chairman for the national GWTG Steering Committee. "We are proud of Lowell General's efforts for implementing these lifesaving treatments and want to highlight their accomplishments."

"The American Heart Association's GWTG program is helping us improve the quality of care and long-term outcomes of our cardiac patients here at Lowell General Hospital," said Normand E. Deschene, President and CEO of Lowell General Hospital. "Through programs such as GWTG and through our expansion of services at The Heart Center at Lowell General, we continually strive to provide the best possible care to our heart patients and to improve the overall health of our community."

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About GWTG:

Get With The Guidelines (GWTG) is the American Heart Association's hospital-based program designed to ensure that patients are consistently treated and discharged according to evidence-based guidelines for coronary artery disease, heart failure, and stroke. This quality improvement program empowers healthcare teams to save lives and reduce healthcare costs through helping hospitals follow evidence-based guidelines and recommendations for treating coronary artery disease, heart failure, and stroke. Experience has shown that 80,000 lives could be saved annually if the coronary artery disease (GWTG-CAD) module alone of Get With The Guidelines were implemented nationwide. GWTG was the first hospital-based program to receive the prestigious Innovation in Prevention Award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2004. Currently more than 1270 hospitals use one or more GWTG modules. GWTG-CAD is supported by an unrestricted educational grant from the Merck/Schering-Plough Pharmaceutical Partnership and GWTG- Heart Failure is supported by an unrestricted grant from Glaxo Smith Kline, Inc.

For more information, visit americanheart.org/getwiththeguidelines .

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