Foothills Gets 5-Stars for Heart Failure Treatment

Foothills Hospital has achieved 5 stars for its performance in Treatment of Heart Failure from Healthgrades, the leading online resource helping consumers make informed decisions to find the right doctor and the right hospital for the right care.

Every year Healthgrades evaluates hospital performance at nearly 4,500 hospitals nationwide for 34 of the most common inpatient procedures and conditions. The organization released new findings and data in its Healthgrades 2017 Report to the Nation.

A 5-star rating indicates that the clinical outcomes for heart failure patients at Foothills Hospital are statistically significantly better than expected. Data from 2013-2015 indicates that patients treated for Heart Failure in hospitals with 5 stars for in-hospital mortality – such as Foothills Hospital – have, on average a 62% lower risk of dying than if they were treated in hospitals with 1 star for in-hospital mortality.*

This new top ranking is confirmed by Foothills Hospital’s very low hospital readmission rate for heart failure patients. At 10.7%, Foothills’ rate is nearly half that of the 20% target rate for U.S. hospitalsset by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

BCH hosts the only specialized heart failure clinic in Boulder County. Led by board-certified ?heart failure specialist Dr. Scott Blois, BCH’s Boulder Heart clinic offers significant expertise with the latest treatment options, leading to improved outcomes for BCH patients.

Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) is a chronic condition that carries a survival rate of 50 percent within five years of diagnosis if not treated correctly. The number of people diagnosed with heart failure is increasing and projected to rise by 46 percent by 2030, resulting in more than 8 million people with heart failure, according to the American Heart Association’s 2017 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics Update.

“We set out to create a unique resource to support patients with heart failure in Boulder and nearby communities,” says Robert Vissers, MD, president and CEO of Boulder Community Health. “The state-of-the-art treatments, education and care provided by Dr. Blois and his team are improving both quality of life and health outcomes for patients dealing with this serious diagnosis.”

*Statistics are based on Healthgrades analysis of MedPAR data for years 2013 through 2015 and represent 3-year estimates for Medicare patients only