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BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 ― The Brooklyn Hospital Center (TBHC) announced today that it has received the Get With The Guidelines®-Heart Failure Silver Plus 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.

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.

TBHC 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 transition interventions.

“The Brooklyn Hospital Center is dedicated to improving the quality of care for our heart failure patients, and implementing the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure program helps us to accomplish this goal by tracking and measuring our success in meeting internationally-respected guidelines,” said Gary Terrinoni, TBHC’s President and CEO. “This award demonstrates the deep commitment of our physicians and nurses to high-quality care for our heart failure patients.”

TBHC also received the association’s Target: Heart Failure^SM Honor Roll. Target: Heart Failure is an initiative that provides hospitals with educational tools, prevention programs and treatment guidelines designed 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.

“We are pleased to recognize The Brooklyn Hospital Center for their commitment to heart failure care,” said Paul Heidenreich, M.D., M.S., national chairman of the Get With The Guidelines Steering Committee and Professor of Medicine at Stanford University. “Research has shown there are benefits to patients who are treated at hospitals that have adopted the Get With The Guidelines program. Get With the Guidelines research has demonstrated the impact of lowering 30-day readmissions and reducing mortality rates.”

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.

According to data released from the New York State Department of Health in 2014, Brooklyn has an aged adjusted rate of 32.4 heart failure hospitalizations per 10,000 residents, which is higher than the New York State adjusted rate of 24.9 hospitalizations per 10,000 residents.

About The Brooklyn Hospital Center

Founded as the borough’s first voluntary hospital, The Brooklyn Hospital Center has been keeping Brooklyn healthy since 1845. Today, it is a 464-bed community teaching hospital, and provides a full range of primary, specialty, diagnostic and tertiary care with a team of outstanding physicians, nurses and staff. TBHC services almost 300,000 annual patient visits throughout Brooklyn. Located in the heart of Downtown Brooklyn, TBHC is a clinical affiliate of The Mount Sinai Hospital and an academic affiliate of The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. TBHC has fully accredited, independent residency programs in emergency medicine, internal medicine, general surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, pharmacy, family medicine, general dentistry and oral and maxillofacial surgery. TBHC trains more than 250 physicians each year.

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 6 million patients since 2001. For more information, visit www.heart.org.