University Hospital Recognized for Distinguished Cardiac Care

University Hospital recently received the designation of becoming a Blue Distinction Center for Cardiac Care from the Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

Only a distinct minority of several hundred hospitals nationwide receive this accolade, which will last for two years.  University Hospital was awarded for its services and levels of care.

Specifically, the hospital scored highly in inpatient and outpatient cardiac care, in addition to the cardiac catheterization services they offer.

 “Anthem looks at many different things for this designation: outcome, survival rate, mortality rate and complications,” said Brenda Yost, administrative director of cardiovascular services.  “Infection rate, readmission, quality of life after procedure and resolution of symptoms are also monitored.”

Anthem also considers hospital volume in its criteria for this award. If volume is up, then usually the national number of positive cardiac outcomes will increase.

University Hospital will participate in national databases with the evidence-based information that it finds.  These databases set the national benchmarks for care, and compare other hospitals across the country. 

Currently, the national benchmark time for treatment of a patient that comes into the emergency room with a cardiac complication is 90 minutes. 

“This means that there is only 90 minutes to open a vessel,” Yost said.

Despite adjusting to differing scenarios, University Hospital is prepared to execute this plan, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“First an [electrocardiography] diagnosis needs to be accomplished, then the cardiac team needs to be dispatched, the patient must be taken to the cath lab and this all needs to be completed within ninety minutes,” Yost said. “It is like aligning the moon and the stars. Getting everyone together is hard, but we have been able to do it.”

Hospitals affiliated with insurance companies seek to be of the highest quality. Insurance companies have to pay less if their client has a procedure at a hospital where their complications are low; the cost goes down when outcomes improve.

University Hospital will benefit by Anthem referring patients to its services and it will also be listed on the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Web site.

“We treat everyone, no one ever gets turned away,” said Dr. Neal Weintraub, chief of the cardiovascular disease division at University Hospital.  “We have a commitment to care for the underprivileged as well as those who have every option.”

Good Samaritan Hospital and Christ Hospital are also distinguished with the Blue Distinction. 

University Hospital is also looking to the future of patient treatment.

“Our focus is to strive for a higher level and higher measure of care with cost effectiveness in mind,” Weintraub said.

University Hospital – and the University of Cincinnati – now have a distinction shared by a small number of other establishments throughout the country.

 “This distinction confirms the hard work University of Cincinnati cardiologists are doing and that they are expert physicians in cardiac care as a result of evidence-based medicine,” said Kathleen Beal, director of quality management services at University Hospital.