St. Elizabeth Edgewood has been awarded the American Heart Association’s Cardiovascular Center of Excellence accreditation, a comprehensive level of designation for cardiovascular care. It recognizes hospitals committed to following proven treatment guidelines incorporated into a comprehensive system of care to fully address the needs of patients with complex cardiac conditions.
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St. Elizabeth Edgewood is the first hospital in Greater Cincinnati and just the seventh in the United States to achieve this accreditation.
Hospitals accredited as Cardiovascular Centers of Excellence must meet or exceed standards established using multidisciplinary treatment models for all types of cardiovascular patients. These standards include 24/7 cardiovascular services, comprehensive training for all staff caring for this patient population, strong internal and external systems of care approach to delivering services, and extensive community outreach to help their population recognize and participate in cardiovascular health.
“This accreditation is recognition of the dedication, commitment and skill of the St. Elizabeth Heart & Vascular Institute team that provides the highest quality personalized care to our patients,” says Dr. Victor Schmelzer, Medical Director, St. Elizabeth Heart & Vascular Institute. “Recognition such as this inspires us to continue to improve as we work to make our community one of the healthiest in the nation.”
The Cardiovascular Center of Excellence (CVCOE) accreditation offers cardiovascular programs a model to ensure best practices and evidence-based medicine is implemented in a standardized fashion for the delivery of cohesive and consistent multidisciplinary cardiovascular care. The CVCOE Accreditation recognizes facilities with robust foundational programs in chest pain, atrial fibrillation, and heart failure. CVCOE standards focus on the areas of governance, systems of care and clinical quality.
For more information about the accreditation, click here.
“We are thrilled for what this means to our patients, that we are right here for them with the highest quality heart care,” says Dr. D.P. Suresh, Medical Director, St. Elizabeth Heart & Vascular. “This recognition demonstrates that we have the physicians and staff, administrative leadership, technology, and research in place to provide unparalleled heart care for the people of this region.”
According to the American Heart Association, the overall goal for the Cardiovascular Center of Excellence accreditation is to improve the outcomes of patients affected by cardiovascular disease. This is accomplished by optimizing the patient and caregiver experiences through a collaborative approach to incorporate best practices founded on established evidence-based cardiovascular treatment guidelines fostered with a systems of care approach.
The American Heart Association also notes that Cardiovascular Centers of Excellence are recognized as champions in their populations’ health.
“In 2015 when the St. Elizabeth Heart & Vascular Institute opened, we set a goal to reduce heart-related deaths in Northern Kentucky by 25 percent by the end of 2025. Today’s announcement is further reinforcement of the progress we continue to make toward that goal,” notes Gary Blank, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of St. Elizabeth Healthcare. “This accreditation verifies St. Elizabeth’s commitment to providing a high-quality, multidisciplinary cardiovascular system of care with a focus on individual patients and the overall health of the community.”
St. Elizabeth Healthcare operates five facilities throughout Northern Kentucky and more than 115 primary care and specialty office locations in Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. St. Elizabeth is sponsored by the Diocese of Covington and is a member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network. St. Elizabeth is a mission-based organization committed to improving the health of the communities it serves, providing approximately $100 million in uncompensated care and benefit to the community in 2016. For more information, click here.
St. Elizabeth Healthcare
