News at UI Health

UI Health recently was honored with the Get With the Guidelines®-Heart Failure Silver Quality Achievement Award from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. The award recognizes UI Health's commitment to providing the most appropriate heart failure treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing hospital readmissions for heart failure patients.

Health systems that receive the Get With the Guidelines®-Heart Failure Silver Quality Achievement Award meet specific quality-achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of heart failure patients at a set level for a designated period. These measures include evaluation of the patient, proper use of medications, and aggressive risk-reduction therapies, including ACE inhibitors/ARBs, beta blockers, diuretics, anticoagulants, among other appropriate therapies. Before patients are discharged, they also receive education on managing their heart failure and overall health, get a follow-up visit scheduled, in addition to other care transition interventions.

The Silver Performance Award is given to hospitals that have meet an aggressive goal of treating heart failure patients with 85% or higher compliance to core standard levels of care outlined by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association for 12 consecutive months.

According to the American Heart Association, about 5.7 million adults in the United States suffer from heart failure, with the number expected to rise to eight million by 2030.