Get With The Guidelines® - Heart Failure Overview

Quality improvement for patients. Performance improvement for hospitals.

Get With The Guidelines®- Heart Failure is an in-hospital program for improving care by promoting consistent adherence to the latest scientific treatment guidelines. Numerous published studies demonstrate the program's success in achieving significant patient outcome improvements. Among the proven results are reductions in 30-day readmissions, a measure now used by CMS in determining CMS reimbursement rates.

In addition to helping ensure full reimbursement, Get With The Guidelines - Heart Failure supports hospitals in a variety of ways, including:

  • access to the most up-to-date research and scientific publications
  • professional education opportunities, such as workshops and webinars
  • clinical tools and resources
  • patient education resources
  • QI field staff support
  • a competitive advantage in the healthcare marketplace
  • national and local recognition for hospital team program achievement
  • CMS data submission
  • performance feedback reporting for continuous quality improvement

Data submission and feedback reporting are performed using the American Heart Association’s online, interactive system provided by IQVIA.

  • Heart Failure Fact Sheet (PDF): View the achievement, quality, reporting, and descriptive measures reported on via Get With The Guidelines - Heart Failure.

Steps for Getting Started

  1. Contact your local Get With The Guidelines representative to begin the enrollment process. They will be able to assist you through the contracting process and answer any questions.
  2. Assemble your multidisciplinary team to determine roles and processes for entering patient data.
  3. Create your baseline by entering 30 records into the Registry to assess your treatment rates.
  4. Use the benchmarking reports to identify areas for improvement and refine processes and protocols to ensure they are in line with the Guidelines.
  5. Identify areas for improvement.
  6. Refine processes and protocols to ensure they are in line with the guidelines.
  7. Brainstorm with your team to find ways to improve your hospital’s treatment rates.
  8. Test your ideas. Remember that changes do not have to be large. Sometimes it works best to start small and build on success.
  9. Repeat steps 8 and 9 until your team is happy with your treatment rates and your hospital is eligible for recognition.
  10. Celebrate your successes and spread the word!

The Get With The Guidelines - Heart Failure program is provided by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.