HM HEALTH PARTNERS Hospitals implement better heart program

The goal is to save the lives of patients who've had heart attacks.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Humility of Mary Health Partners' St. Elizabeth and St. Joseph Health Centers, in Youngstown and Warren respectively, are implementing the American Heart Association's "Get With The Guidelines-Coronary Artery Disease" program.
The AHA program is a quality improvement initiative in which evidence-based guidelines and procedures are followed while caring for cardiac patients, hospital officials said.
Reducing risks
Under the program, coronary patients are started on risk reduction therapies, such as cholesterol-lowering drugs, aspirin, ACE -- angiotensin converting enzyme -- (high blood pressure medicines), inhibitors and beta-blockers in the hospital, and receive smoking cessation and weight management counseling and referrals for cardiac rehabilitation before being discharged.
Research indicates that when patients are discharged from the hospital on appropriate medications, their risk of a second event is reduced and lives are saved, hospital officials said.
According to AHA, more than 450,000 people suffer recurrent heart attacks each year. Statistics also show that within six years after a heart attack, about 22 percent of men and 46 percent of women will be disabled with heart failure; and within one year of an attack, 25 percent of men and 38 percent of women will die.
Critical step
The full implementation of secondary prevention guidelines is a critical step in saving the lives of coronary patients," said Dr. Gray Ellrodt, AHA volunteer chairman for the national "Get With The Guidelines" project.