UT Medical Center, East Tennessee’s only teaching hospital, has recently teamed up with the American Heart Association to promote the “Get with the Guidelines” program.

“The quality improvement initiative is designed to reduce the risk of recurrent heart attacks by helping hospital staff follow proven standards and procedures while coronary patients are in their care,” said Brian Nock, public relations representative for the AHA.

UT Medical Center is both the first hospital in Knoxville and the first major university hospital in the country to implement the program.

In order to reduce the number of recurrent illnesses and deaths in heart attack patients, UT Medical Center will now follow standards which are outlined in the AHA/American College of Cardiology guidelines, which include care maps, discharge protocols, standing orders, measurement tools and prescribing the correct medications.

“Chances are high that a heart attack will happen again,” Nock said. “Patients need to follow a new routine of things that they weren’t doing before such as taking certain medications throughout the day and going in for check-ups more frequently.”

The “Get with the Guidelines” program also provides the healthcare professional with a protocol to follow. This protocol is made up of standards, which must be met in order to participate in the program.

According to Nock, most of the standards are post-event and deal mainly with the patient’s care, like having a neurologist on staff at all times.

Once the patient is discharged, it is up to the medical personnel to make sure that he/she is given prescriptions for the appropriate medications, like aspirin, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors and lipid-lowering medicines, which have been proven to reduce the risk of another heart attack.

“UT and the AHA are life partners who want to make a difference in the community,” Nock said. “They are trying to do education before and care after an event.”

Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center and St. Mary’s Hospital both plan to follow suit to UT Medical Center’s association with the American Heart Association.