Verde Valley Medical Center once again has been recognized for achievement in using evidence-based guidelines to provide the best possible care to patients through the American Heart Association/ American Stroke Association’s Get With The GuidelinesSM program.

Get With The Guidelines is a hospital-based quality-improvement program designed to ensure hospitals consistently care for cardiac and stoke patients by following more up-to-date guidelines and recommendations. The program addresses coronary artery disease, heart failure and stroke. Currently more than 1,450 hospitals participate in the program.

VVMC is one of three Arizona hospitals earning a 2009 Gold Award for Sustained Performance, earning the award for treatment of coronary artery disease. Nationally, 569 hospitals were featured in the 2009 AHA//ASA recognition advertisement in the “America’s Best Hospitals” issue of US News & World Report commending their receipt of GWTG Gold or Silver Performance Achievement Awards.

Hospitals are recognized in each category in which they achieve at least 85 percent compliance to GWTG Guidelines measures. Those hospitals marking 85 percent compliance for 24 consecutive months are given the Gold Performance Achievement Award. VVMC earned a gold award in 2008 as well.

“The AHA is pleased to recognize its top GWTG participants,” said Lee Schwamm, M.D, national chairman of the GWTG steering committee, associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and Vice Chairman of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Healthcare providers who use GWTG are armed with the latest evidence-based guidelines and immediate access to clinical decision support, using a set of tools that have been shown to improve delivery of evidence-based care. The goal of this initiative is to improve the quality of life and help reduce deaths and disabilities among patients with heart disease and stroke. “

The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s advertisement recognizes VVMC’s commitment and success in performance achievement.