Grassroots Collaborators in Quality

Local AHA affiliates work closely with hospitals, EMS teams and other clinical organizations to ensure AHA's heart health guidelines are being implemented. Why? Because following the guidelines leads to an improved standard of care and better quality outcomes.

“I think we can almost be an extended part of [a local] organization with what we can provide, because we're able to bring in updated guidelines, best practices and ideas they may not know even exist,” says Michelle Scharnott, Vice President of Quality and System Improvement for Midwest Affiliates. Scharnott's group serves healthcare organizations across 11 Midwestern states.

Implementing the guidelines can be challenging for various reasons. Lack of training, outdated care protocols and time constraints can inhibit the process. “I think we excel at not only helping organizations understand what the guidelines are, but in figuring out how to implement them within their own organization,” says Rea Anne Arcangel, Vice President of Quality and Systems Improvement for Western States Affiliates. “Each organization has unique limitations and resources, and we help them find ways to make the guidelines work within these constraints.”

American Heart Association guidelines serve to ensure patient health and wellness. But sometimes, as with stroke and the related medical treatment tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), the guidelines also serve as quality standards. And in this respect, they form the centerpiece for maximizing value.

As healthcare systems grapple with ways to deliver better care in leaner organizations, they are poised to benefit from low-cost help at advocacy organizations like AHA. Fortunately, American Heart Association local team members provide consultation, at low or no cost, that addresses a costly challenge to healthcare providers: population health management. These experts help large and small hospitals and health systems evaluate their patient data to identify opportunities for improvement that will drive value.

Take heart failure as an example. Analyzing deidentified patient data can reveal trends and opportunities for reducing readmissions, but reviewing the massive amount of data involved can be time-consuming and costly. Furthermore, some organizations may not have the in-house experts required to accurately assess the data and make recommendations.

“We can look at system and hospital-level data to analyze an organization's metrics and identify areas for improvement,” says Wendy Segrest, Vice President, Quality & Systems Improvement for SouthWest Affiliates. “Not only do we provide a safe environment for performing these reviews, but we save organizations the cost of an expensive consultant.”

Once the data is analyzed, local AHA team members can enter the provider as a neutral third party and help manage the change process to improve the standard of care. This outside assistance streamlines the process of continuous quality improvement by removing the fault-finding and finger-pointing that can impede progress at the organizational level. And when quality goes up, so does value

Another way the American Heart Association aids local communities in elevating care quality and improving value is in promoting innovation. Through AHA's vast national network, new approaches to problem-solving can be quickly identified and shared with others.

At one recent meeting of stroke coordinators in Wisconsin, a question came out about the FAST acronym, which is used to help detect and enhance responsiveness to stroke patients. (FAST stands for facial drooping, arm weakness, speech difficulties and time.) A stroke coordinator asked if organizations were using anything other than FAST to guide stroke assessment. “We were able to get on the phone with coordinators across the country to take a brief poll and provide answers within minutes,” Scharnott says.

This is one way the American Stroke Association promotes the creative thinking that leads to innovation.

Members of AHA's quality and systems improvement teams also proactively share new research and information that can lead to novel care approaches. For instance, a group will disseminate new research findings quickly to their local hospitals so providers can act on the latest and best data without having to search it out on their own. And because the local team members spend a vast amount of time in the field, they encounter creative problem solving methods that can be applied rapidly across multiple providers and administrators in other organizations.

AHA's educational opportunities, such as locally focused webinars and bootcamps, represent another way the association encourages original thinking about how to put best practice guidelines in place and troubleshoot problems that arise with implementation. The brainstorming sessions that can occur during these activities help everyone involved move toward a shared goal: better heart health for the local community.

One of the American Heart Association's primary objectives is to save lives. In this effort, local team members serve a vital function: analyzing local needs and providing the tailored resources required to deliver high-quality care in that specific community. “The biggest benefit to healthcare organizations in working with us is saving lives,” Arcangel says. For example, her team discovered rural EMS teams which did not have 12-lead EKG machines for field use, which could lead to delayed treatment for heart attack patients. Once Arcangel's team found out about this need, it obtained the devices and sent them into the field. “Since giving EMS this vital equipment, we have been able to document 12 saved lives,” she says.

The American Heart Association recognizes that each community and each healthcare organization face unique challenges in healthcare delivery. By tailoring its delivery of services to match these individualized needs, the AHA's local teams provide the maximum benefit to every community it serves.

The American Heart Association works on a national level to fund research and educate patients on heart health. But it is equally active on the local level, working closely with hospitals and other partners to transform care, elevate quality and drive value. Learn more about your local affiliate at www.heart.org/quality .