Hospital is One of Just 167 Hospital’s in US to Earn Gold Performance Award for Heart Care

To earn the award, South Nassau needed to adhere to the treatment guidelines in ACTION Registry–GWTG for 12 consecutive quarters (three years) and meet a performance standard of at least 85% for specific performance measures.

Cardiovascular Drug Delivery – Technologies, Markets and Companies

This new report added by BharatBook provides information on molecular cardiology and discusses its relationship to biotechnology and drug delivery systems.

Cardiovascular Health Center Receives State Grant

The grant will support the construction of a new electrophysiology laboratory and procedure room for diagnostic studies to determine the source of arrhythmia symptoms and to perform treatment procedures.

Chief Nursing Officer Named at South Nassau Communities Hospital

South Nassau Communities Hospital recently announced that Sue Penque, PhD, RN, CNP, has been named chief nursing officer and senior vice president of patient care services. Dr. Penque, who originally hails from Long Island, comes to South Nassau from the North Memorial Health Care System in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, where she served as Chief Nursing Officer of the system.

“Dr. Penque is known for her acumen and leadership to develop and implement plans that improve the quality and delivery of patient care services and enhance nursing staff retention and recruitment,” said Joseph A. Quagliata, president & CEO at South Nassau. “Her extensive record of accomplishment and know-how will ensure that South Nassau builds on its tradition of excellence in patient care services.”

As senior vice president and chief nursing officer, Dr. Penque will oversee all nursing activities and will work to insure the delivery of consistent, high-quality care that is in keeping with the overall mission, vision, and objectives of South Nassau. This includes planning, implementing, and coordinating the delivery of standard-setting patient-centered nursing care throughout the hospital system, which includes 14 community-based, outpatient specialty healthcare centers. She will also lead and direct the development of strategies to promote the recruitment, retention, and recognition of excellence in nursing; assist in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of clinical programs and services; coordinate and collaborate in identifying areas for performance improvement and prepare and participate in Joint Commission and hospital licensure surveys.

“South Nassau is known for its commitment to providing its nursing staff with the foundation and tools it needs to fulfill its commitment to serve patients with the attentive, compassionate care that they deserve,” said Dr. Penque. “I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of South Nassau’s tradition of providing high-quality healthcare services that are tailored to the needs of its patients.”

A magnet appraiser from the American Nurses Credentialing Center in Maryland, Dr. Penque joins South Nassau after 29 years of distinguished service at United Hospital/Allina Hospitals in St. Paul, Minn. Selected vice president of patient care at United Hospital and co-chair of the Allina health system nurse executive council in 2007, Dr. Penque spearheaded the opening of the system’s 122-bed Nasseff Heart Center and Critical Care Hospital, serving as its director from 1995-2004. Prior to that, she was a clinical nurse manager for a cardiovascular step down unit from 1985-95 and a clinical nurse specialist in critical care and telemetry from 1980-85.

Dr. Penque is a recipient of numerous honors in the field of nursing, including the Helen Wells Nursing Research Award, Dora Stohl Nursing Leadership Fellowship, Rahr Fellowship in Nursing Research, and Twin Cities Chapter AACN Critical Care Nurse of the Year Award. She has also authored and co-authored a number of medical publications and research papers on the advancement of nursing and patient safety that have been published in Nursing Management, Dimensions of Critical Care Nursing, The Nurse Practitioner, and the American Journal of Critical Care. She is an active member of many important professional associations, including the American Organization of Nurse Executives, Gerontology Society of America, American Association of Nurse Practitioners and American Nurses Association.

South Nassau Communities Hospital is one of the region’s largest hospitals, with 435 beds, more than 875 physicians and 2,800 employees. Located in Oceanside, NY, the hospital is an acute-care, not-for-profit teaching hospital that provides state-of-the-art care in cardiac, oncologic, orthopedic, bariatric, pain management, mental health and emergency services. In addition to its extensive outpatient specialty centers, South Nassau provides emergency and elective angioplasty and is the only hospital on Long Island with the Novalis Tx™ and Gamma Knife® radiosurgery technologies. South Nassau is a designated Stroke Center by the New York State Department of Health and Comprehensive Community Cancer Center by the American College of Surgeons and is recognized as a Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence by the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. For more information, visit www.southnassau.org.

Hospital’s Treatment of Coronary Artery Disease Earns Gold Performance Award

In recognition of its compliance with best-practice clinical guidelines in cardiac care, South Nassau Communities Hospital has been awarded a Gold Performance Achievement Award in Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The GuidelinesSM (GWTG) program. This marks the second consecutive year that South Nassau has earned the Gold Performance Achievement Award for achieving high standards in the treatment of CAD.

Ruth Ragusa, RN, vice president for organizational effectiveness for South Nassau, said, “Earning a Gold Performance Award again is testimony that we understand that excellence is not a one time act, it is something that we do repeatedly. We will not relent in our goal to perform at 100%, 100% of the time.”

The GWTG program is a quality-improvement program that helps hospitals provide cardiac and stroke care in accordance with the most up-to-date guidelines and recommendations. Hospitals that continually meet or exceed the nationally accepted standards, or guidelines, improve their quality patient care by turning guidelines into “lifelines”. Upon meeting specific criteria, hospitals are recognized for performance achievement if at least 85 percent of their cardiac or stroke patients are treated and discharged according to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s guidelines and recommendations.

Research has shown that 80,000 lives can be saved annually if the program’s recommended guidelines for coronary artery disease are implemented nationwide. GWTG was the first hospital-based program to receive the prestigious Innovation in Prevention Award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2004. Presently, nearly 2,000 hospitals use one or more GWTG modules. For more information, visit americanheart.org/getwiththeguidelines.

“While this honor is a reflection of South Nassau’s consistency in achieving high standards in the treatment of coronary artery disease, what it means to the residents and communities we serve is that in the event you, a loved one or friend need expert, advanced, potentially life-saving cardiac care, you need look no further than your South Nassau,” said Jason Freeman, MD, FACC, director of interventional cardiology.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the age-adjusted rate of deaths attributed to heart disease is down 25.8 percent since 1999. According to the American Heart Association, the main factors that have helped reduce the rate of deaths caused by heart disease include the establishment of guidelines for the treatment and prevention of heart attacks; improvements in medications and in technology; and the timely delivery of appropriate treatments, such as angioplasty or thrombolysis to open blocked coronary arteries.

South Nassau’s Center for Cardiovascular Health is built on those factors. The center treats patients with the combination of advanced technologies and best practices and is equipped with the latest advancements in cardiac digital imaging systems. Its echocardiography lab is accredited by the Intersocietal Commission for Accreditation of Echocardiography (ICAEL). The prestigious accreditation is awarded in recognition of a commitment to quality testing for the diagnosis of heart disease and is based on the quality and critical elements of the echocardiography laboratory.

The center performs a wide range of coronary and peripheral interventional procedures, including balloon angioplasty, stenting, and thrombolytic therapy. When providing balloon angioplasty in an emergency, the center consistently achieves a door-to-balloon-time of approximately 70 minutes, which is 20 minutes faster than the medically recommended door-to-balloon time benchmark of 90 minutes.

Lawrence Kanner, MD, FACC, director of electrophysiology and arrhythmia services, and the center’s staff of electrophysiologists use advanced technologies to provide timely, accurate diagnoses and therapies to treat the range of cardiac arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythms) and defibrillator complications. Services include diagnostic studies, implantation and testing of pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators, and radio-frequency catheter ablation for the treatment of potentially fatal irregular heartbeats.

Cardiac imaging specialists at the center are well-versed in nuclear cardiology (which generates images of the heart at work, during exercise, and at rest), echocardiogram via the trans-thoracic method (a non-invasive, highly accurate and quick assessment of the overall health of the heart in which a probe is placed on the chest wall of the patient to produce images of the heart), and transesophageal echocardiogram (which uses a specialized probe containing an ultrasound transducer at its tip that is passed into the esophagus and is used to provide clear views of areas of the heart that would be difficult to view transthoracically).

The center’s cardiac imaging services also include stress echocardiogram (which involves exercising on a treadmill or stationary bicycle while the patient is monitored by technology using high-frequency sound waves that produces a graphic outline of the heart’s movement, valves, and chambers) and diagnostic peripheral vascular ultrasound (noninvasive diagnostic technique used to evaluate the health of blood vessels) for patients with peripheral arterial disease.

South Nassau Communities Hospital is one of the region’s largest hospitals, with 435 beds, more than 875 physicians and 2,800 employees. Located in Oceanside, NY, the hospital is an acute-care, not-for-profit teaching hospital that provides state-of-the-art care in cardiac, oncologic, orthopedic, bariatric, pain management, mental health and emergency services. In addition to its extensive outpatient specialty centers, South Nassau provides emergency and elective angioplasty and is the only hospital on Long Island with the Novalis Tx and Gamma Knife radiosurgery technologies. South Nassau is a designated Stroke Center by the New York State Department of Health and Comprehensive Community Cancer Center by the American College of Surgeons and is recognized as a Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence by the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. For more information, visit www.southnassau.org.