BMC, Fairview Hospital Honored
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association is recognizing Berkshire Medical Center for its performance in treating cardiac and stroke patients, and recognizing Fairview Hospital for its performance in treating cardiac patients, using the association's Get With The Guidelines program.BMC is one of only 33 hospitals in the U.S. and one of only two in Massachusetts to achieve Triple Gold recognition, for two or more consecutive years of Sustained Performance Achievement adherence in all three performance measures: coronary artery disease, heart failure and stroke. BMC has been recognized with eight consecutive Performance Achievement awards for outstanding performance in the care of patients with coronary artery disease, and is the only hospital in the nation so honored eight years running. BMC was also the first hospital in the United States to be honored with awards for stroke and heart failure, holding six consecutive yearly Performance Achievement awards for outstanding care of stroke patients and five consecutive yearly Performance Achievement awards for care of patients with heart failure.
Fairview Hospital has again achieved a Gold Recognition for sustained performance of two years or more in all performance measures related to coronary artery disease.
BMC and Fairview join 813 other hospitals featured in an advertisement in the August "America's Best Hospitals" issue of US News & World Report. BMC is featured on the first page of the ad for its Triple Gold Recognition.
"Berkshire Medical Center leads nationally with more Performance Achievement Awards than any other hospital in our program," said Michael Weamer, CAE, executive vice president, American Heart Association, Founders Affiliate.
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 provides three modules that address coronary artery disease, heart failure and stroke.
Upon meeting each module's criteria, hospitals are recognized if at least 85 percent of their cardiac or stroke patients are treated and discharged according to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's recommendations.
The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's advertisement recognizes BMC'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."
