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NewYork-Presbyterian/Lawrence Hospital has received the Get With The Guidelines®–Heart Failure Gold Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology Foundation’s secondary prevention guidelines for patients with heart failure.

This is the first year that the hospital has been recognized with the Gold quality achievement award. “This has been an exceptional year for NewYork-Presbyterian/Lawrence Hospital when it comes to cardiac care; first with the opening of our state-of-art Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, which allow us to perform more advanced interventional heart procedures, and now with this recognition from the AHA which speaks to the quality of care here,” said NYP/Lawrence Hospital President Michael Fosina.

Get With The Guidelines–Heart Failure is a quality improvement program that helps hospital teams provide the most up-to-date, research-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing hospital readmissions for heart failure patients. Launched in 2005, numerous published studies have demonstrated the program’s success in achieving patient outcome improvements, including reductions in 30-day readmissions.

NYP/Lawrence Hospital earned the award by meeting 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. These would include ACE inhibitors/ARBs, beta-blockers, diuretics, anticoagulants and 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, as well as other care transition interventions.

“We are pleased to recognize NewYork-Presbyterian/Lawrence Hospital for its commitment to heart failure care,” said Deepak L. Bhatt, M.D., M.P.H., national chairman of the Get With The Guidelines steering committee and Executive Director of Interventional Cardiovascular Programs at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “Studies have shown that hospitals that consistently follow Get With The Guidelines quality improvement measures can reduce patients’ length of stays and 30-day readmission rates and also reduce disparity gaps in care.”

In April, NYP/Lawrence Hospital opened the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, allowing the hospital to perform lifesaving minimally invasive heart procedures. It is staffed by interventional cardiologists and electrophysiologists of ColumbiaDoctors, the faculty practice of Columbia University Medical Center, offers a variety of minimally invasive procedures such as coronary stenting, heart biopsy and pacemaker implantation, and is one of the few centers in Westchester licensed to perform emergency cardiac angioplasty for patients having a heart attack.

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. Statistics show that each year about 870,000 new cases are diagnosed and about 50 percent of those diagnosed will die within five years. However, many heart failure patients can lead a full, enjoyable life when their condition is managed with proper medications or devices and with healthy lifestyle changes.

About NewYork-Presbyterian/Lawrence Hospital

Founded in 1909, NewYork-Presbyterian/Lawrence Hospital has a long and well-established history of providing superior healthcare to the residents of southern Westchester County and its surrounding communities. The hospital joined the NewYork-Presbyterian Regional Hospital Network in 2014. In recent years, NewYork-Presbyterian/Lawrence has undertaken several capital improvement projects to offer new services that meet the needs of a growing and diverse population. In April, 2015, the hospital dedicated the state-of-the-art Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at NewYork-Presbyterian/Lawrence Hospital. A leader in stroke care, Lawrence has been designated a New York State Stroke Center. The hospital has also won important certifications as Breast Imaging and Bariatric Centers of Excellence. Its newly redesigned Emergency Department provides emergency care to approximately 35,000 people annually. The hospital’s doctors also deliver nearly 2000 babies each year. New moms and their families enjoy their home away from home in the recently renovated Maternity Department featuring private rooms with showers, flat screen TVs and Internet access. Lawrence's laboratory is accredited by the College of American Pathologists. Its Cancer Care program is accredited by the American College of Surgeons with Commendation. In addition, the hospital’s Cardiology program includes an accredited Echocardiographic Laboratory by the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Echocardiographic Laboratories.

About Get With The Guidelines

Get With The Guidelines® is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program that provides hospitals with the latest research-based guidelines. Developed with the goal of saving lives and hastening recovery, Get With The Guidelines has touched the lives of more than 5 million patients since 2001. For more information, visit heart.org/quality or heart.org/QualityMap.

About NewYork-Presbyterian

NewYork-Presbyterian is one of the nation’s most comprehensive healthcare delivery networks, focused on providing innovative and compassionate care to patients in the New York metropolitan area and throughout the globe. In collaboration with two renowned medical school partners, Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, NewYork-Presbyterian is consistently recognized as a leader in medical education, ground-breaking research and clinical innovation.

NewYork-Presbyterian has four major divisions: NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is ranked #1 in the New York metropolitan area by U.S. News and World Report and repeatedly named to the magazine’s Honor Roll of best hospitals in the nation; NewYork-Presbyterian Regional Hospital Network is comprised of leading hospitals in and around New York and delivers high-quality care to patients throughout the region; NewYork-Presbyterian Physician Services connects medical experts with patients in their communities; and NewYork-Presbyterian Community and Population Health features the hospital’s ambulatory care network sites and operations, community care initiatives and healthcare quality programs, including NewYork Quality Care, established by NewYork-Presbyterian, Weill Cornell and Columbia.

NewYork-Presbyterian is one of the largest healthcare providers in the U.S. Each year, nearly 29,000 NewYork-Presbyterian professionals deliver exceptional care to more than 2 million patients.

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