Improving patient care for those living with cardiac diseases and stroke has been a long-standing priority for the American Heart Association and its hospital and health care partners. Together, we have envisioned a world where evidence-based quality initiatives and superior professional education go hand in hand to improve patient care.
Providing “Gold Standard Confidence” is the ideal blend of quality guidelines and professional education, allowing providers to deliver the highest quality care that patients deserve. When health care professionals have the Gold Standard Confidence to deliver quality guideline-directed care and best-in-class professional education, patient outcomes improve.
Collaboration that fosters learning and best practices
At the American Heart Association, science informs everything we do and is the engine that drives improvement for our partners. In collaboration with our partners and volunteers, we create the standards for care and then help organizations meet those standards through long-standing and emerging quality improvement programs. A 2001 clinical quality improvement initiative focused on coronary artery disease laid the foundation for the quality improvement efforts we now call Get With The Guidelines that now includes modules in resuscitation, stroke, heart failure, atrial fibrillation and more.
Today, more than 2,600 hospitals in the U.S and Puerto Rico have adopted Get With The Guidelines, yielding more than 11 million de-identified patient records available to researchers on the Association’s secure Precision Medicine Platform. This vast repository produces vital research, new interventions and improved patient outcomes — including reduced hospital readmissions within 30 days.
These standards also drive health equity, ensuring all patients have access to equitable care, regardless of their background or where they live. Datasets have been used to shine a light on and resolve care variation and disparities in care.
Professional training that focuses on competency, not compliance
If science is the engine that drives quality guidelines and care, professional education ensures the delivery of that quality care is consistent. That starts with providing gold-standard training to health care professionals.
How do you stay on top of the skills and standards that provide the right care to the right person at the right time, every time? The answer is multifaceted. The American Heart Association meets people where they are to deliver professional education in numerous pathways and how they want the information delivered. Educational materials are tailored to the needs of individuals — from patient/caregiver to EMS to advanced health care professionals.
The Resuscitation Quality Improvement (RQI) program, co-developed by the American Heart Association and Laerdal Medical, verifies CPR competence, a higher standard of resuscitation and patient care. The ability to consistently administer high-quality CPR is critical to improving outcomes from cardiac arrest. RQI simulation stations on the hospital floor provide hands-on learning sessions for vital CPR skills practice in short sessions every 90 days, reducing and eliminating labor expenses by assimilating sessions into the learner’s normal work schedule. The real-time audio and visual feedback via high-fidelity mannequins meet and exceed accreditation and credentialing standards. This disruptive approach to traditional, compliance-based professional education is the framework for the next phase of professional education for the American Heart Association.
Intelligo Professional Education Hub™, a new science-based, online platform for health care professionals, offers continuing education tools and training resources curated by experts. As evidence-based guidelines evolve, the professional education courses needed to stay abreast of the latest science will evolve on the Intelligo platform as well. New premium eLearning courses and certificate programs as part of the Association’s acquisition of the American Board of Telehealth are designed to prepare health care professionals to treat patients remotely and provide best practices for telemedicine. And, through a suite of courses, the Association’s training prepares health care professionals to identify health disparities and integrate solutions that build health equity into clinical practice to better serve communities and patients. This is another example of the American Heart Association’s commitment to accelerating education for clinicians, health professionals and scientists and ensuring equity across patient audiences.
American Heart Association provides hospitals and health care systems with Gold Standard Confidence
Our partners share our fierce commitment to saving lives. They know the American Heart Association’s comprehensive science, clinical solutions and programs represent the Gold Standard in quality health care. "Gold Standard Confidence” comes from knowing that together, we will improve patient outcomes and save lives, while also helping to contain costs. Partners in our mission join in, and contribute to, a community dedicated to achieving the highest standards of competence and confidence. We know hospitals and health care systems have more challenges than ever before — and we’re standing beside them, every step along the way, to ensure they can deliver the best care to the communities counting on them most.