Mercy Hospital Southeast Nationally Recognized for High-Quality Heart Failure Care
Mercy Hospital Southeast is being nationally recognized with the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines® - Heart Failure Gold Plus quality achievement award for its commitment to improving outcomes for patients with heart failure, meaning reduced readmissions and more healthy days at home.
About 6 million U.S. adults are living with heart failure, a number that is expected to increase to more than 8 million by 2030. Despite the name, heart failure doesn’t mean the heart has stopped working – it means the heart is having a hard time pumping blood and oxygen throughout the body. While there’s no cure for heart failure, patients can live a quality life by working with their health care team to create and stick with a plan that may include medication, symptom monitoring and lifestyle changes.
“We’re very excited to receive this recognition,” said Regina Moore, Mercy Southeast quality management specialist. “This is our sixth year earning this award for the work we do to care for the heart failure patient population in Southeast Missouri. There are a lot of moving parts in this work, which include the heart failure team, led by Dr. Munis Raza, and our heart failure nurse practitioner, Morgan Siemer. For our hospital inpatients, education is provided by the nursing, cardiac rehab, transitional care, palliative care, pharmacy and nutrition teams.”
The Get With The Guidelines - Heart Failure quality achievement award is earned by hospitals that demonstrate a commitment to treating patients according to the most up-to-date guidelines as outlined by the American Heart Association. Get With The Guidelines puts the expertise of the American Heart Association to work for hospitals nationwide, helping ensure patient care is aligned with the latest research- and evidence-based guidelines. The program aims to increase healthy days at home and reduce hospital readmissions for heart failure patients.
“Our specialists work hard to serve our patients at the outpatient level as well, and in return, we are able to decrease hospital admissions,” Moore said. “Serving our patients to the best of our ability is our mission.”
Mercy Hospital Southeast is also recognized on the American Heart Association’s Target: Heart FailureSMHonor Roll and Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll™. Hospitals on the heart failure honor roll meet specific criteria that improve medication adherence, provide early follow-up care and coordination and enhance patient education. The goal is to further reduce hospital readmissions and help patients improve their quality of life in managing this chronic condition.
The Target: Type 2 Diabetes honor is for facilities that aim to ensure patients with Type 2 diabetes, who might be at higher risk for complications, receive the most up-to-date, evidence-based care when hospitalized due to heart disease.
Mercy, one of the 20 largest U.S. health systems and named the top large system in the U.S. for excellent patient experience by NRC Health, serves millions annually with nationally recognized quality care and one of the nation’s largest Accountable Care Organizations. Mercy is a highly integrated, multi-state health care system including more than 50 acute care and specialty (heart, children’s, orthopedic and rehab) hospitals, convenient and urgent care locations, imaging centers and pharmacies. Mercy has over 900 physician practice locations and outpatient facilities, more than 4,500 physicians and advanced practitioners and more than 47,000 co-workers serving patients and families across Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Mercy also has clinics, outpatient services and outreach ministries in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
