Hospitals and care teams get the public recognition they deserve for participating in Get With The GuidelinesSM. The GWTG recognition program can help your hospital hone its competitive edge in the marketplace by providing tangible evidence to patients and stakeholders of the hospital’s commitment to improving quality care.
Make sure your hospital is among those recognized in advertisements placed annually in Circulation, Stroke and the "Best Hospitals" issue of U.S. News and World Report.
Join the celebration at national recognition events during Scientific Sessions and the International Stroke Conference.
Make sure your hospital takes advantage of these and other opportunities! Contact your local representative or view recognition criteria for details.
Get With The Guidelines has played an important role in helping hospitals win prestigious national awards, including Magnet Status, the Malcolm Baldrige Award and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) Codman Award.
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Christy Stephenson,
President and CEO of Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, Hamilton, N.J. |
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"In 2004, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton became the fourth hospital nationwide to receive the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation's highest award for quality and performance excellence. Get With The Guidelines provided the tools necessary to measure, benchmark and improve performance against a number of criteria." |
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Bill Likosky, M.D.,
Stroke Program Director, Swedish Medical Center, Seattle, Wash. |
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"Swedish Medical Center Seattle was awarded one of health care's most prestigious honors, JCAHO's 2005 Ernest Amory Codman Award for stroke care. Get With The Guidelines served as a foundation for our award-winning quality initiatives. With Get With The Guidelines, our stroke teams were able to benchmark performance, identify variances to guidelines and manage timely and effective acute stroke care." |
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More testimonials
FAQs on GWTG Abstract Changes
Why did Get With The Guidelines make changes to Performance Achievement Award (PAA) Abstracts?
We made changes regarding eligible patient populations and submitted patient populations to streamline the communication between hospitals submitting data and the volunteers reviewing the PAA abstract submissions.
We also made changes to the GWTG–CAD Performance Measures to update the measures to be in compliance with the latest available science (i.e., AHA/ACC’s Secondary Prevention Guidelines for CAD Patients).
What is the difference between “total patients discharged” and “patients submitted for PAA recognition”?
The new abstract asks for "Total Patients Discharged with a Principal Diagnosis of [CAD, Heart Failure or Ischemic Stroke and TIA] (as defined in Patient Management Tool) during this reporting period." This is the total number of patients that your hospital saw with that diagnosis during the time you are submitting.
"Total Patients with a Principal Diagnosis of [CAD, Heart Failure or Ischemic Stroke and TIA] being Submitted for this Performance Achievement Award reporting period" refers to the number of patients that are represented by your hospital's submitted data reflected in the below measures on the PAA abstract submission.
What if the numbers don’t match up exactly?
We want hospitals to enter all eligible patients. However, we understand that often hospitals must start in a specific unit or floor and then spread to other patients. While we encourage all hospitals to reach this goal, valid reasons for not entering all eligible patients might include:
- The hospital is conducting a statistically significant random sampling.
- The team is working in one area of the hospital and intends to spread to other floors, units or areas.
I work at a small hospital; we do not have 30 patients in an entire year. Can we still submit for PAA?
Small hospitals that cannot enter 30 patients for Bronze (Initial) PAA are encouraged to submit for the Silver(Annual) or Gold (Sustained) PAA. If your hospital does not have 30 patients within a year, you may submit for the equivalent of 12 months of patient volume.
When did these changes go into effect?
These criteria changes went into effect on Nov. 20, 2006. After this date, hospitals must use the new abstract form.
Do we need at least 30 patients in each denominator (e.g., 30 who received early aspirin, 30 who received smoking cessation counseling, etc), or just 30 patients total?
Your abstract should reflect at least 30 patients total, not necessarily 30 who received each intervention. For example, you may have had 30 patients, but due to contraindications only 25 were eligible for beta blockers.
The requirement for minimum of 30 records per reporting period or 12-month equivalent was determined by the GWTG Steering Committee and is considered a process of accountability. We need to have enough information to say with confidence that hospitals have or have not met the threshold standard for national recognition of their achievement.
How do these changes affect recognition events?
The changes are in effect for hospitals wishing to be recognized at International Stroke Conference 2007 submissions and the July 2007 ad in U.S. News & World Report.
Is there a special recognition program for small or rural hospitals?
Small and rural hospitals are encouraged to submit for the Silver (Annual) or Gold (Sustained) PAA. If a hospital does not have 30 patients per year, it may submit for the equivalent of 12 months of patient volume.
What does “12-month equivalent” mean?
“12-month equivalent” is the number of patients treated for that condition in 12 months.
Does this mean my hospital won’t be recognized in U.S. News & World Report?
The GWTG program intends to continue to run an ad in the “Best Hospitals” edition of U.S. News & World Report each July. Performance Achievement Award hospitals are recognized in this ad, as well as in ads in Stroke and Circulation.
When can I start using the new abstract template?
Nov. 20, 2006.
What is the impact of the changes to CAD Performance Measures?
Bronze (Initial) Performance Achievement Awards:
- Hospitals working toward Bronze (Initial) Performance Achievement Awards can run reports for the six performance measures for any 90-day time period within the last year. If they demonstrate 85 percent compliance, they will qualify for an Initial Performance Achievement Award.
Silver (Annual) Performance Achievement Awards:
- Hospitals that do not have enough patients (or sufficient performance) over a one-month timeframe to qualify for an Bronze (Initial) Performance Achievement Award can run their reports on the six measures for a 12-month period. They will qualify if they meet the minimum 85 percent compliance level.
- Bronze (Initial) Performance Achievement Award hospitals working toward Silver (Annual) Performance Achievement Awards can run their reports on the six measures beginning with either the quarter in which they achieved their Bronze (Initial) Performance Achievement Award, or the quarter directly after.
- Silver (Annual) Performance Achievement Award hospitals that are working toward Gold (Sustained) Performance Achievement Awards would run their reports for the next consecutive 12-month interval, following their Silver (Annual) Performance Achievement Award time period, on the six performance measures.
- To achieve a Gold (Sustained) Performance Achievement Award, the hospital will have to demonstrate a minimum 85 percent compliance for the six CAD measures.
Gold (Sustained) Performance Achievement Awards:
- Hospitals that have a current Gold (Sustained) Performance Achievement Award will need to run reports for their next consecutive 12-month period based on the new six performance measures if that 12-month period extends beyond Nov 20, 2006. Any abstract coming forward after Nov. 20, 2006 needs to demonstrate 85 percent compliance for the six CAD performance measures for the reporting period being represented.
How likely is it that our hospital will be able to meet 85 percent compliance on the changed measures?
Very likely, especially considering that:
- Early aspirin has been a publicly reported CMS measure for the past three to four years. So all hospitals have already been tracking this measure in Hospital Compare as well as collecting the measure for GWTG since they enrolled in the program. The current GWTG performance mean for early aspirin is 93 percent.
- ACE/ARB with LVSD<40% is also a CMS and JCAHO measure that hospitals have been reporting on for several years in hospital compare and collecting as a GWTG measure.
- It is likely that we will see an increase in the number of hospitals qualifying for the ACE/ARB measure now that the GWTG CAD performance measure is aligned with CMS and JCAHO with the Ejection Fraction < 40% applied to the measure.
