July 21, 2009, ST. LOUIS — The cardiology team at Barnes-Jewish Hospital celebrated another recognition, days after U.S. News & World Report ranked “Heart and Heart Services” at Barnes-Jewish #12 nationally and the hospital #9 overall.
Barnes-Jewish received the American Heart Association’s (AHA) “Get With The GuidelinesSM Gold Performance Achievement Award.” The award recognizes the success of Barnes-Jewish and their physician partners at Washington University School of Medicine in using evidence-based guidelines to provide the best possible care to coronary artery disease, stroke and/or heart failure patients
Hospitals are recognized in each category in which they achieve at least 85 percent compliance to Get With The GuidelinesSM measures. Those hospitals marking 85 percent compliance for 24 consecutive months are given the Gold Performance Achievement Award, the category Barnes-Jewish was recognized in.
“We had one hundred percent in-time rate for patient receiving emergency angioplasty or thrombolytics,” says Nelda Martin, RN, cardiology clinical nurse specialist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. “This is an achievement only 5 percent of all hospitals in the nation have achieved and sustained.”
Get With The GuidelinesSM 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.