BMC Joins Get With The Guidelines–AFIB Program
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Berkshire Medical Center has joined the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines-AFIB, a quality improvement program created to help hospital teams consistently provide the latest guideline-based treatment for patients with atrial fibrillation.
Atrial fibrillation, or AF, is a quivering or irregular heartbeat affecting more than 2.7 million Americans, and accounts for about one-third of hospitalizations for cardiac rhythm disturbance. People with AF are five times more likely to suffer a stroke and can develop blood clots, heart failure and other complications.
The American Heart Association’s GWTG–AFIB was developed to help healthcare professionals utilize a quality improvement blueprint for how best to care for AF patients using the most up-to-date research-based guidelines.
As a GWTG–AFIB participating hospital, BMC is developing a comprehensive system for providing rapid diagnosis and treatment of AF patients that includes appropriate use of safe anticoagulants to prevent stroke and heart-rate controlling medications to prevent heart failure.
BMC is also increasing its efforts to identify those patients who have AF, using GWTG-AFIB protocols for treatment, monitoring tools, and patient education. Through GWTG–AFIB, the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association provides BMC training in the program’s patient management tool and the opportunity to track performance against the guidelines and national benchmarks.
“Berkshire Medical Center is dedicated to helping our patients with atrial fibrillation have the best possible outcomes, and implementing the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines-AFIB program will help us accomplish this by making it easier for our teams to put proven knowledge and guidelines to work on a daily basis,” said Gray Ellrodt, MD, Chief Quality Officer.
