Hospital News

Valley Medical Center Receives Achievement Award for Heart Treatment 

The American Heart Association (AHA) has awarded Valley Medical Center a Silver Performance Achievement Award for its efforts to make sure the care the hospital provides to its heart failure patients meets the AHA’s treatment guidelines. 

The award was given as part of the AHA’s “Get with the Guidelines” program, a national AHA initiative to encourage hospitals to provide heart failure care based on the best scientific evidence.

Under the guidelines, patients with heart failure patients are started on an aggressive therapeutic program while they are sill in the hospital to reduce their risk of recurrent heart failure and other complications.

For example, the guidelines recommend that, when appropriate, heart failure patients should be put on cholesterol-lowering, blood pressure, and anticoagulant therapies and that they be referred for cardiac rehabilitiation before they leave the hospital.

The AHA launched to Get With the Guidelines program after it was determined that many heart patients were not receiving the best evidence-based treatments that had been identified in AHA guidelines.

Valley Medical Center received the AHA award in recognition that it had achieved 85 percent compliance with the AHA heart failure guidelines for one year.

To learn more:

• Visit Valley Medical Center’s Web site
• Visit the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines Web page.

AJC to honor Virginia Mason CEO Dr. Gary Kaplan

The Seattle chapter of the American Jewish Committee will give its Human Relations Award to Dr. Gary Kaplan, chairman and CEO of Virginia Mason Medical Center at an awards dinner June 4.

Dr. Kaplan is being recognized for his efforts to improve health care quality, safety and efficiency, his contribution to health care reform, and his work on both regional and national foundations and associations.

To learn more:

• Visit the American Jewish Committee’s Web page.
• Visit the Virginia Mason Medical Center’s Web page.

Virginia Mason Opens Melanoma Specialty Program

Virginia Mason Medical Center has opened a specialty program for patients with melanoma. 

The Center reports it has seen a 50-percent increase in the number of patients with melanoma over the past five years.

Melanoma, the most aggressive form of skin cancer, is diagnosed in nearly 60,000 Americans every year. 

Melanoma causes 75 percent of deaths due to skin cancer.

However, with early detection and treatment melanoma can be cured.

Virginia Mason says the new program will provide:

• Multidisciplinary care to patients with localized and advanced melanoma.
• Dedicated dermatologists, oncologists, pathologists, radiologists, surgeons and nurses. 
• An oncology clinical registered nurse coordinator who assists each patient through the treatment course, from referral to recovery.
• A detailed treatment summary sent to referring providers upon completion of treatment.

PHOTO CREDIT: Melanoma courtesy of the National Cancer Institute

To learn more:

• Visit the Virginia Mason Melanoma Program Web page
• Visit the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance Melanoma information pages.
• Visit the National Library of Medicine’s MedlinePlus Melanoma information page.
• Visit the National Cancer Institute’s information page on Melanoma.

Tags: Cardiology, Gary Kaplan, Heart Failure, Hospitals, Melanoma, Renton, Seattle, Skin Cancer, Valley Medical Center, Virginia Mason

Category: Melanoma, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Skin Cancer