Sharon receives award

Sharon receives award

SHARON, PA.

Sharon Regional Medical Center, a Steward Family Hospital, has received the American College of Cardiology’s National Cardiovascular Data Registry Platinum Performance Achievement Award for 2018, one of 203 hospitals nationwide to receive the annual honor, which Sharon Regional has received consecutively since 2013.

The award recognizes the hospital’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart-attack patients and signifies the hospital has reached an aggressive goal of treating these patients to standard levels of care as outlined by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association clinical guidelines and recommendations, according to a hospital news release.

Mercy Health recognized by AHA

YOUNGSTOWN

For the last six years, including 2018, the American Heart Association’s Get With the Guidelines program has recognized and awarded Mercy Health-St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital with the distinguished Gold Plus Quality Award for Heart Failure Care and added the hospital to its Heart Failure Honor Roll list.

“Research has shown that hospitals adhering to clinical measures through the Get With The Guidelines quality improvement initiative can often see fewer readmissions and lower mortality rates,” said Dr. Eric E. Smith, national chairman of the Get With the Guidelines Steering Committee and an associate professor of neurology at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada.

Fighting epidemic

CHICAGO

The American Medical Association adopted policy at its recent annual meeting to ensure that patients with substance-use disorders receive evidence-based treatment – whether that treatment is in clinics, drug-treatment facilities, hospitals, correctional settings or the physician’s office.

“The AMA wants all physicians to be leaders in the fight against the opioid epidemic,” said AMA President-elect Patrice A. Harris, M.D., chairwoman of the AMA Opioid Task Force.

The AMA urges removing administrative barriers to Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT), including prior authorization that causes delays or denials of care.

The AMA also urges enforcement of mental health and substance use disorder parity laws, and that medical students, physicians-in-training, and practicing physicians receive education about opioid prescribing.