CHOC Children’s Hospital Honored with Resuscitation Recognition Award

CHOC Children’s Hospital has received the Get With The Guidelines^®-Resuscitation Silver Plus 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.

More than 200,000 adults and children have an in-hospital cardiac arrest each year, according to the American Heart Association. The Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation program was developed with the goal to save lives of those who experience in-hospital 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-resuscitation care.

“This recognition is more evidence of CHOC Children’s steadfast commitment to the highest standards of patient care,” said Dr. Jason Cook, a pediatric critical care physician and medical leader of CHOC’s resuscitation activities. “We’re grateful to have the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation program as another resource in CHOC’s toolbelt to ensure the best possible outcomes for our patients.”

CHOC received the award for meeting specific measures in treating pediatric in-hospital cardiac arrest patients. To qualify for the awards, hospitals must comply with the quality measures for two or more consecutive years.

“CHOC is dedicated to helping our patients have the best possible outcomes and ensuring they have happy and healthy childhoods,” said Dr. James Cappon, CHOC’s chief quality officer. “Participating in the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation program helps us accomplish this by making it easier for our teams to put proven knowledge and guidelines to work on a daily basis.”

“We are pleased to recognize CHOC for their commitment in following these guidelines,” said Lee H. Schwamm, M.D., national chairperson of the Quality Oversight Committee and Executive Vice Chair of Neurology, Director of Acute Stroke Services, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. “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 and has collected in-hospital cardiac arrest data from more than 500 hospitals. Data from the registry and the quality program give participating hospitals feedback on their resuscitation practice and patient outcomes. In addition, the data helps improve research-based guidelines for in-hospital resuscitation.