Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center Earns American College of Cardiology Award for Cardiac Care

Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. (July 27, 2015) – In recognition of Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients, the hospital receives the Get with the Guidelines Platinum Performance Achievement Award for 2015.

“As one of the area’s leading heart hospitals, it is an honor to once again be recognized for our cardiac services,” said Jeffrey M. Welch, CEO of Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center. “This award is validation of our Heart & Vascular Institute’s dedication to providing standard driven, advanced care for the community.”

Awarded by the American College of Cardiology’s NCDR ACTION Registry, the achievement also signifies that Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center has reached an aggressive goal of treating heart attack patients as outlined by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association’s clinical guidelines and recommendations.

To earn the Platinum Performance Achievement Award, Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center consistently followed the treatment guidelines in the ACTION Registry-GWTG Premier for eight consecutive quarters and met a performance standard of 90 percent for specific measures. Full participation in the registry helps engage hospitals in a quality improvement process using data to drive improvements in adherence to guideline recommendations and overall quality of care provided to heart attack patients.

“The American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association commend Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center for its success in implementing standards of care and protocols,” said James Jollis, MD, FACC, ACTION Registry-GWTG Chair and Professor of Medicine and Radiology at Duke University Hospital. “The full implementation of acute and secondary prevention guideline-recommended therapy is a critical step in saving the lives and improving outcomes of heart attack patients.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that over 700,000 Americans suffer a heart attack each year. A heart attack occurs when a blood clot in a coronary artery partially or completely blocks blood flow to the heart muscle. Treatment guidelines include administering aspirin upon arrival and discharge, timely restoration of blood flow to the blocked artery, smoking cessation counseling and cardiac rehabilitation, among others.

As the first hospital in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast to perform open-heart surgery, The Heart & Vascular Institute at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center remains one of the area’s top heart hospitals. With a team that consists of highly skilled cardiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons, nurses, physical therapists, respiratory therapists, dietitians, pharmacists and other clinical staff, the hospital has performed over 16,000 open-heart surgeries and more than 100,000 cardiac catheterizations to date.