U.S. hospitals and other institutions will have access to a single, comprehensive set of cardiovascular accreditation services through a new collaboration between the ACC and the American Heart Association (AHA).

Starting in 2017, hospitals will be able to take advantage of a suite of co-branded accreditation services focused on all aspects of cardiac care, including chest pain, cardiac catheterization, atrial fibrillation, heart failure and other cardiovascular conditions. ACC and AHA accreditation services will offer all hospitals and institutions a single source of state-of-the-art process improvement tools to bridge gaps and integrate evidence-based science, quality initiatives, clinical best-practices and the latest ACC/AHA guidelines into their cardiovascular care processes.

“The ACC and the AHA have worked together for more than 30 years to develop cardiovascular clinical guidelines and translate those guidelines into programs and services that shape clinical care and improve patient outcomes,” said ACC CEO Shal Jacobovitz. “Through this collaboration we can increase the scope and positive impact of accreditation on cardiovascular patient care.”

The ACC added accreditation services to its suite of cardiovascular quality improvement offerings for hospitals and other facilities earlier this year when the Society of Cardiovascular Patient Care merged with the College. Over the last 18 years, SCPC has accredited more than 1,000 hospitals and other facilities to improve clinical processes for the early assessment, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease. For more than a decade, the AHA has been raising the bar for cardiovascular and stroke care through accreditation and certification programs and its award-winning quality improvement initiatives that reach over 2,000 hospitals and impact the care of millions of patients across the country.

“Bringing together the collective resources and expertise of our two organizations, we have a unique opportunity to further accelerate the improvement of cardiovascular care for all Americans,” said AHA CEO Nancy Brown. “This collaboration builds upon our shared commitment to transform health care and help people live healthier lives free of cardiovascular diseases.”

By joining forces, the ACC and AHA aim to identify and recognize high performing and complex cardiovascular service lines across the nation and provide unbiased, actionable and achievable benchmarks for all hospital and clinical leaders to use as they work to raise their own standards of clinical performance.

“Today is a great day for cardiovascular patient care,” said Phillip D. Levy, MD, MPH, FACC, chair of ACC’s Accreditation Management Board. “By combining forces to promote accreditation services, the AHA and the ACC will be well positioned to achieve a shared vision where data is used to inform best practices, and best practices are used to guide care, every time. I am proud to be part of such progressive organizations and look forward to working across disciplines to improve cardiovascular health worldwide."

Learn more at CardiacAccreditation.org.

Keywords: Accreditation, American Heart Association, Atrial Fibrillation, Benchmarking, Cardiac Catheterization, Certification, Chest Pain, Cooperative Behavior, Delivery of Health Care, Heart Failure, Patient Care, Quality Improvement, Stroke

< Back to Listings