Torrance Memorial Medical Center 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.
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, Torrance Memorial 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.
"The multidisciplinary rescue and resuscitation committee is passionately
committed to providing the highest quality evidence-based care to our
patients," said Shanna Hall, RN, BSN, MBA, nursing director for Critical
Care/Medical Surgical Units. "We consistently go above and beyond
what is expected to exceed performance standards from the time a patient
suffers a cardiac event throughout all components of treatment in order
to ensure the best possible opportunity for survival."
The performance standards are measured by: time to first chest compressions
less or equal to one minutes, device confirmation of correct endotracheal
tube placement, time to first shock equal to or less than two minutes
in patients with pulseless ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation
and percent of pulseless cardiac event monitored or witnessed at the time
of the event. Torrance Memorial Medical Center has maintained at least
85 percent compliance with these performance recognition measures for
the last four years.
"We are pleased to recognize Torrance Memorial for their commitment
in following these guidelines," said Deepak L. Bhatt, M.D., M.P.H.,
national chairman of the Get With The Guidelines steering committee and
Executive Director of Interventional Cardiovascular Programs at Brigham
and Women's Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical
School. "Shortening the time to effective resuscitation and maximizing
post-resuscitation care is critical to patient survival."
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.