North Colorado Medical Center recognized for heart and stroke care
GREELEY, Colo. (July 16, 2009) – North Colorado Medical Center has been recognized for achievement in using evidence-based guidelines to provide the best possible care to patients through The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines program.
NCMC and 569 other hospitals are being recognized for their receipt of Get With The Guidelines Gold or Silver Performance Achievement Award. The awards are given for achievement in the treatment of coronary artery disease, stroke and/or heart failure.
Hospitals are recognized in each category in which they achieve at least 85 percent compliance to Get With The Guidelines measures. Those hospitals marking 85 percent compliance for 24 consecutive months are given the Gold Performance Achievement Award, with the Silver Performance Achievement award going to those with 85 percent compliance for 12 consecutive months.
Get With The Guidelines is a hospital-based quality-improvement program designed to ensure that hospitals consistently care for cardiac and stroke patients following the most up-to-date guidelines and recommendations. The program addresses coronary artery disease, heart failure and stroke. Currently more than 1,450 hospitals participate in the program.
NCMC and the other hospitals are featured in a July 28 advertisement in the “America’s Best Hospitals” issue of US News & World Report to commemorate their receipt of the achievement awards. The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s advertisement recognizes NCMC’s commitment and success in performance achievement.
“The American Heart Association is pleased to recognize its top Get With The Guidelines participants,” said Lee Schwamm, MD, national chairman of the Get With The Guidelines steering committee, associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and vice chairman of neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Healthcare providers who use Get With The Guidelines are armed with the latest evidence-based guidelines and immediate access to clinical decision support, using a set of tools that have been shown to improve delivery of evidence-based care. The goal of this initiative is to improve the quality of life and help reduce deaths and disability among patients with heart disease and stroke.”
ABOUT NORTH COLORADO MEDICAL CENTER
North Colorado Medical Center is a fully accredited, private, not-for-profit facility licensed to operate 398 beds. It serves as a regional medical center with community-based and specialty services in a service area including southern Wyoming, western Nebraska, western Kansas and northeastern Colorado. A family-centered obstetrics unit, cardiovascular, oncology, ortho/neuro, Level II trauma, Western States Burn Center and acute inpatient rehabilitation are among the many services offered through the medical center. Nearly 400,000 square feet of new patient care space was added to the northern Colorado region when the NCMC opened an expanded facility in December 2005. Included is the CardioVascular Institute of North Colorado featuring state-of-the-art heart services; expanded birthing center and neonatal care unit, new intensive care units and new surgical suites.
ABOUT BANNER HEALTH
Based in Phoenix, Banner Health is one of the largest, not-for-profit health care systems in the country. Banner has 22 facilities that offer an array of services including hospital care, home care, hospice care, nursing registries, surgery centers, laboratories, rehabilitation services. These facilities are located in seven states - Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, and Wyoming. In addition to emergency and medical services, Banner Health medical centers house a variety of specialized services, including heart care, cancer treatment, delivery of high-order multiple births, organ transplants, bone marrow transplants, rehabilitation services, and behavioral health services.
For more information, visit www.bannerhealth.com.
ABOUT GET WITH THE GUIDELINES
Get With The GuidelinesSM is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program that empowers healthcare teams to save lives and reduce healthcare costs by helping hospitals follow evidence-based guidelines and recommendations. For more information, visit www.americanheart.org/getwiththeguidelines.
