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Awards and Accreditations

BMC Achieves Heart Association Honors
BMC Recognized with Quality Achievement Awards for Heart Failure Care and Resuscitation Berkshire Medical Center has received the Get With The Guidelines®–Heart Failure Gold-Plus Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology Foundation secondary prevention guidelines for heart failure patients. In addition, BMC has received the Get With The Guidelines®–Resuscitation Silver Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association for the treatment of patients who suffer cardiac arrests in the hospital. This marks the 8th year that BMC has been recognized with a quality achievement award for Heart Failure, and this is the first Silver recognition for Resuscitation. Heart Failure Award: 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. BMC 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 proper use of medications and aggressive risk-reduction therapies such as cholesterol-lowering drugs, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, aspirin, diuretics and anticoagulants while patients are in the hospital. Before patients are discharged, they also receive education on managing their heart failure and overall health, as well as referrals for cardiac rehabilitation. BMC also received the association’s Target: Heart Failure Honor Roll. Target: Heart Failure is an initiative that provides hospitals with educational tools, prevention programs and treatment guidelines developed to reduce the risk of heart failure patients ending up back in the hospital. Hospitals are required to meet criteria that improves medication adherence, provides early follow-up care and coordination and enhances patient education. The goal is to reduce hospital readmissions and help patients improve their quality of life in managing this chronic condition. According to the American Heart Association, about 5.1 million people suffer from heart failure. Each year, 670,000 new cases are diagnosed and more than 275,000 people will die of heart failure. However, many heart failure patients can lead a full life when their condition is managed with proper medications and devices and with healthy lifestyle changes. Resuscitation Award: The Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation program was developed with the goal to save lives of those who experience cardiac arrests through consistently following the most up-to-date research-based guidelines for treatment. Guidelines include following protocols for patient safety, medical emergency team response, effective and timely resuscitation (CPR) and post-emergency care. More than 200,000 adults and children have an in-hospital cardiac arrest each year, according to the American Heart Association. Specifically, BMC is awarded for meeting specific measures in treating adult cardiac arrest patients. To qualify for the awards, hospitals must demonstrate compliance with these performance measures at a set level for a designated period. Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation builds on the work of the American Heart Association’s National Registry of CardioPulmonary Resuscitation, originally launched in 1999 as a database of in-hospital resuscitation events from more than 500 hospitals. The data from the registry and the quality program gives participating hospitals feedback on their resuscitation practice and patient outcomes and help develop research-based guidelines for in-hospital resuscitation.