Kapi'olani receives American Heart Association Achievement Award For Cardiac Care
Award recipients were recognized in the US News & World Report America’s Best Hospitals edition July 2007.
Kapi‘olani Medical Center at Pali Momi recently received the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines–Coronary Artery Disease (GWTG-CAD) 2007 Gold Award for Sustained Performance for the past two years. The award recognizes Kapi‘olani’s commitment to quality and success for 24 consecutive months in implementing a higher standard of cardiac care that effectively improves treatment of patients hospitalized with coronary artery disease. Kapi‘olani was one of 26 facilities nationally to be recognized for this achievement.
Why is Get With the Guidelines Program important for patients?
Projections have shown that implementation of cardiovascular disease secondary prevention guidelines nationwide could result in saving more than 80,000 lives each year.
According to the American Heart Association, more than 450,000 people suffer recurrent heart attacks each year. Statistics also show that within one year of an attack, 25 percent of men and 38 percent of women will die. Within six years after a heart attack, about 22 percent of men and 46 percent of women will be disabled with heart failure.
To receive the award, Kapi‘olani consistently met the American Heart Association’s GWTG–CAD program requirements. Under the program, patients are started on aggressive risk reduction therapies such as cholesterol-lowering drugs, aspirin, ACE inhibitors and beta-blockers in the hospital and receive smoking cessation and weight management counseling and referrals for cardiac rehabilitation before they are discharged.
"The American Heart Association applauds Kapi‘olani for its success in implementing the appropriate standards of care and protocols to reduce the number of recurrent events in coronary patients," said Dr. Gray Ellrodt, M.D., the American Heart Association volunteer chairman for Get With The Guidelines. "Kapi‘olani is well above the national average in terms of implementing these life-saving treatments."
The American Heart Association’s Get With The GuidelinesSM program is being implemented in hospitals around the country. For more information on Get With The Guideline s, visit americanheart.org/getwiththeguidelines.