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| Lake Pointe Medical Center Receives Awards for Participating in American Heart Association Program that Turns Guidelines into Lifelines |
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ROWLETT, TX – MAY 17, 2007 — Lake Pointe Medical Center announced today that it was recognized for participating in the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association program Get With The GuidelinesSM. The program helps ensure that the care hospitals provide for coronary artery disease, stroke and heart failure is aligned with the latest scientific guidelines.
Lake Pointe Medical Center has been awarded the Initial Performance Achievement Award for participating in the Get With The GuidelinesSM program in both coronary artery disease and heart failure. This recognition demonstrates Lake Pointe Medical Center’s commitment to implement a higher standard of care for heart disease patients.
Get With The GuidelinesSM helps ensure that patients treated and discharged receive quality care in accordance with guidelines that will reduce the risk of secondary events. It takes advantage of the “teachable moment,” the time soon after an acute event, when patients are most likely to listen to their healthcare professionals’ treatment recommendations. Studies demonstrate that patients who are taught how to manage their risk factors while still in the hospital reduce their risk of a second heart attack.
This commitment signifies that Lake Pointe Medical Center will use the program to comply with core standard levels of care outlined by the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology secondary prevention guidelines and recommendations. Under the protocols, patients in the hospital are started on aggressive risk reduction therapies such as cholesterol-lowering drugs, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, aspirin, diuretics and anticoagulants. They also receive alcohol/drug use and thyroid management counseling and referrals for cardiac rehabilitation before being discharged.
“The full implementation of acute and secondary prevention guidelines is a critical step in saving the lives of patients,” said Gray Ellrodt, M.D., chairman of the GWTG Steering Committee. “The aim of the American Heart Association’s Get With The GuidelinesSM program is to help hospitals like Lake Pointe Medical Center implement appropriate evidence-based guidelines for care and protocols that will reduce the number of deaths in these patients and in their communities.”
According to the American Heart Association, each year more than 450,000 people suffer a recurrent heart attack and about five million people suffer from heart failure.
“Lake Pointe Medical Center is dedicated to making our care for heart disease patients among the best in the country. We will continue in our efforts to fully implement this valuable program,” said Patty Sewalt, Director of Continuous Quality Improvement at Lake Pointe Medical Center. “Get With The GuidelinesSM makes it easier for our professionals to improve the long-term outcomes of our cardiac patients, and we are pleased to be recognized for our dedication to the program.”
Lake Pointe Medical Center’s staff develop and implement acute and secondary prevention guideline processes. The program includes quality improvement measures such as care maps, discharge protocols, standing orders and measurement tools. This quick and efficient use of guideline tools is designed to enable Lake Pointe Medical Center to improve the quality of care it provides heart disease patients, save lives, and ultimately reduce healthcare costs by lowering recurrence of events.
The coronary artery disease module of Get With The GuidelinesSM is developed with support from an unrestricted educational grant from the Merck/Schering-Plough Pharmaceutical Partnership. Glaxo Smith Kline, Inc. has provided support for Get With The GuidelinesSM -Heart Failure.
ABOUT LAKE POINTE MEDICAL CENTER
Lake Pointe Medical Center, part of Tenet Texas, is a 99-bed acute care hospital located at 6800 Scenic Drive in Rowlett. Lake Pointe Medical Center has been serving the residents of Rockwall, Rowlett and the surrounding communities since 1987. The hospital provides a wide spectrum of medical services, including an emergency department with Fast Track services, an intensive care unit, women's services, a Level II Neonatal Nursery, diagnostic imaging, eight operating rooms, physical therapy and telemetry. Lake Pointe Medical Center also provides a number of specialty services, including cardiology and cardiac rehabilitation, vascular surgery, neurosurgery and neurology, orthopedics, gastroenterology, oncology, infectious disease, general surgery, ear nose and throat, pulmonary medicine, urology, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics and neonatal services. The Lake Pointe Imaging Center in Rockwall also provides extended imaging services to the community. The hospital is accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the nation’s oldest and largest hospital accreditation agency. To learn more about Lake Pointe Medical Center, visit www.lakepointemedical.com.
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