The American Heart Association (AHA) has recognized UVA Health System’s heart failure program with two national quality awards for using treatment guidelines that speed recovery and reduce hospital readmissions for heart failure patients.
The UVA Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Center earned the 2015 Get With The Guidelines® Heart Failure Gold-Plus Quality Achievement Award from the AHA and the American College of Cardiology Foundation, and was also named to the AHA’s Target: Heart Failure Honor Roll.
“I’m proud of the work of our entire heart failure team, which strives to provide customized, high-quality care for each of our patients with heart failure,” says Nita Reigle, MSN, ACNP-BC CHFN, a nurse practitioner who specializes in caring for heart failure patients.
Providing High-Quality Patient Care
UVA’s heart failure team received the award for exceeding quality measures in several areas. Following these steps have been shown to improve patients’ survival rate and reduce complications from heart failure. They include providing:
- Device therapy, such as biventricular pacemakers and implantable defibrillators
- Appropriate medications, based on research, to improve patients’ quality of life and reduce their risk of death
- Treatment to prevent deep vein thrombosis
- Follow-up appointments within seven days of being released from the hospital
- Pneumonia and flu vaccinations
- Education to help patients manage their heart failure and reduce their chances of being readmitted to the hospital