Buffalo General Medical Center and DeGraff Memorial Hospital Receive Nuclear Cardiology Accreditation by the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission

Buffalo, N.Y. (October 12, 2012) – Cardiovascular diseases are the No. 1 cause of death in the United States. On average, one American dies every 39 seconds of cardiovascular disease-disorders of the heart and blood vessels. According to the American Heart Association, the total direct and indirect cost of cardiovascular disease and stroke in the U.S. for 2010 was an estimated $503.2 billion.

Early detection of life threatening heart disorders and other diseases is possible through the use of nuclear cardiology procedures performed within hospitals, outpatient centers and physicians’ offices. While these tests are helpful, there are many facets that contribute to an accurate diagnosis based on the nuclear cardiology testing. The skill of the technologist performing the examination, the type of equipment used, the background and knowledge of the interpreting physician and quality assurance measures are each critical to quality patient testing.

The nuclear cardiology programs at Buffalo General Medical Center and DeGraff Memorial Hospital have been granted a three-year term of accreditation in nuclear cardiology by the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC).

Accreditation by the IAC means that Buffalo General Medical Center and DeGraff Memorial Hospital have undergone a thorough review of their operation and technical components by a panel of experts. The IAC grants accreditation only to those facilities that are found to be providing quality patient care, in compliance with national standards through a comprehensive application process including detailed case study review.

“We have always taken pride in the high quality care we provide to our patients,” said John Mycek, director, Imaging Services at Kaleida Health. “This recognition acknowledges that quality, as well as our outstanding clinical practices and state-of-the-art technology.”

IAC accreditation is a “seal of approval” that patients can rely on as an indication that the facilities have been carefully critiqued on all aspects of their operations considered relevant by medical experts in the field of nuclear cardiology.

IAC accreditation is widely respected within the medical community, as illustrated by the support of the national medical societies related to nuclear cardiology, which include physicians, technologists and medical physicists. Nuclear/PET accreditation is required by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and in some cases by private insurers. However, patients should remain vigilant in making sure that their nuclear cardiology procedures are performed within accredited facilities, because for some facilities it remains a voluntary process.

To learn more contact Barbara Browning at 716-859-8071.

Buffalo General Medical Center Receives Quality Achievement Award

Buffalo General Medical Center Receives American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation Bronze Quality Achievement Award

August 3, 2012 – Buffalo General Medical Center has received the Get With The Guidelines®–Resuscitation Bronze Quality Achievement Award from the American Heart Association. The recognition signifies that Buffalo General has reached an aggressive goal in using guidelines-based care to improve patient outcomes from in-hospital cardiac arrest.

The Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation program aims to help hospital teams save more lives threatened by cardiopulmonary emergencies by consistently following the most up-to-date scientific guidelines for treating patients who suffer a cardiac arrest in the hospital.

More than 18,800 in-hospital cardiac arrests occur each year, according to the American Heart Association.

Get With The Guidelines–Resuscitation helps Buffalo General Medical Center’s staff develop and implement protocols that can reduce disability and death from cardiac and respiratory emergencies. It provides an evidence-based, quality improvement program of patient safety, medical emergency team response, effective resuscitation and post-emergency care.

Specifically, Buffalo General is awarded for meeting indentified measures in caring for adult cardiac arrest patients.

Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation builds on the work of the American Heart Association’s National Registry of CardioPulmonary Resuscitation (NRCPR), originally launched in 1999 as a database of in-hospital resuscitation events from more than 500 hospitals. The data from the registry and now the quality program gives participating hospitals feedback on their resuscitation practice and patient outcomes and has been used to develop new evidence-based guidelines for in-hospital resuscitation.

Buffalo General Medical Center joins other hospitals across the country in putting that data to work in everyday practice to save lives. As a Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation Bronze Award recipient, over the past 90 consecutive days, the hospital has, among other achievements:

· Had more than 20 percent of cardiac arrest patients survive to hospital discharge

· Ensured that at least 85 percent of cardiac arrest patients are getting timely CPR, defibrillation or other appropriate treatment within minutes of being found in cardiac arrest.

“Buffalo General Medical Center’s commitment to Get With the Guidelines-Resuscitation puts our quality improvement interventions and strategies into the workflow of care for their patients who experience cardiac arrest,” said Lee H. Schwamm, M.D., chair of the Get With The Guidelines National Steering Committee and professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School in Boston. “Shortening the time to effective resuscitation and maximizing post-resuscitation care is critical to patient survival.”

“Buffalo General is dedicated to helping our patients have the best possible outcomes. Implementing the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines–Resuscitation program will help us accomplish this by making it easier for our teams to put proven knowledge and guidelines to work on a daily basis,” said Cheryl Klass, Senior Vice President of Operations, Buffalo General Medical Center.

About Buffalo General Medical Center

Buffalo General Medical Center is a not-for-profit, acute care teaching medical center. It is located in downtown Buffalo, NY, on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, a growing epicenter of top clinical, research, and medical education institutions. As the proud flagship for Kaleida Health, Western New York’s largest healthcare system, Buffalo General Medical Center is a major referral center for the most complex cardiac, orthopedic, bariatric and general surgery services, just to name a few. To learn more visit  www.kaleidahealth.org.

About Get With The Guidelines

Get With The Guidelines® is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program that empowers healthcare teams to save lives and reduce healthcare costs by helping hospitals follow evidence-based guidelines and recommendations. For more information, visit heart.org/quality.

GATES VASCULAR INSTITUTE OPENS ON MARCH 28

The new Gates Vascular Institute (GVI) next to Buffalo General Medical Center opens on March 28th. Kaleida Health has designed this state-of-the-art facility to be the premier destination for stroke care, cardiac surgery, and vascular services.  The brand new emergency department opened in the building in November 2011. Kaleida has consolidated services into one location, increasing its ability to provide world-class care for Western New Yorkers and beyond. Learn more about this new location.

Later this year, the top floors of the building will open as the University at Buffalo’s Clinical and Translational Research Center. The $291 million facility will bring together Kaleida Health physicians and University at Buffalo researchers in a collaborative effort to deliver leading clinical care, produce major breakthroughs on the causes and treatment of vascular disease, and spin-off new biotechnology businesses and jobs.

GVI Opens March 28

Groundbreaking Heart Procedure Makes Buffalo General Medical Center #1

By Annette Pinder

Something that never happened before in Western New York took place in January. Janice Savey of Olean and Robert Cecchini of Tonawanda, who suffered from severe untreatable aortic stenosis, underwent a new type of surgery, and they believe the outcome is nothing short of a miracle.

That’s because a new ground-breaking procedure called transcatheter aortic-valve replacement (TAVR), which treats narrowing of the aortic artery, is now an option for some patients. And Buffalo General Medical Center is the only facility in Upstate New York and West of Albany that has been approved to perform this complex non-invasive procedure.

According to the American Heart Association, more than five million Americans are diagnosed with heart valve disease each year, and up to 1.5 million of them suffer from aortic stenosis. In Western New York there are about 75,000 cases, and with an aging population, those numbers will continue to grow. Symptoms of the disease can include chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness, and fainting. Approximately 50 percent of those who have it will not survive more than two years without valve replacement following onset of symptoms. And if a patient has other serious health issues, making open heart surgery impossible, TAVR may prove to be an effective option.

In a normally functioning heart, blood travels from the left ventricle through the aortic valve and into the aorta where it is carried through the body. Aortic stenosis occurs when the aortic valve narrows or fails to open and close properly, forcing the heart to work harder and harder. The extra stress causes the heart’s muscles to weaken over time, increasing the risk of heart failure.

TAVR involves the insertion of a biological valve through a small cut in the leg. Once delivered to the site of the  diseased valve, the new valve is expanded with a balloon and immediately functions in place of the patient’s valve. This allows for valve replacement without traditional open-heart surgery and while the heart is beating, avoiding the need for cardiopulmonary bypass.

Vijay Iyer, MD, is Medical Director of Cardiology at Buffalo General Medical Center, and practices with UBMD Internal Medicine. He attributes the selection of Buffalo General to the volume of cases they have, and their years of excellent outcomes. Although more facilities will likely open in our region, Dr. Iyer emphasizes the importance of patient volume and the need for a team that includes heart and vascular surgeons, anesthesiologists, specialists in heart imaging and cardiologists to perform each procedure.

“TAVR is a major milestone in the treatment of valve-related heart disease,” says Dr. Iyer, and an example of a great collaborative of Gates Vascular Institute and UB’s Clinical Translational Research Center. Located adjacent to Buffalo General Medical Center, the new center will officially open April 1.

For now, Dr. Iyer estimates the procedure will initially be limited to about 70 patients a year who meet the necessary criteria. It isn’t approved yet for younger or less-risky patients, but for those with more serious conditions there is renewed hope.

Western New York Resource
Vijay Iyer, MD, PhD
Director of Cardiology
Buffalo General Medical Center

100 High Street

Buffalo, NY 14203

1-855-BGH-TAVR

TAVR@KaleidaHealth.org