Interventional cardiologist Dr. Sarah Gualano, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Medical Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital, is overseeing the patient navigator program.

DALLAS – April 5, 2018 – UT Southwestern Medical Center is one of 15 hospitals in the country selected to participate in the American College of Cardiology Patient Navigator Program: Focus MI Quality Campaign as a “Diplomat Hospital.”

This is an expanded version of the original Patient Navigator Program launched in 2013, of which UT Southwestern was one of 35 pioneering hospitals chosen to provide personalized services to heart disease patients and help them avoid a quick return to the hospital.

“The team at UT Southwestern is eager to be a part of this national effort to reduce readmissions after heart attacks, and we look forward to participating in this innovative program,” said interventional cardiologist Dr. Sarah Gualano, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Medical Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital, who is overseeing the navigator program.

Patient Navigator Program: Focus MI will provide hospitals participating in the ACC’s ACTION Registry the ability to transform care by sharing successful strategies, mentorship, and specialized tools and resources. In addition, the 15 Diplomat Hospitals will focus on identifying best practices for improving patient care and readmissions, including 30- and 90-day follow-up post hospital discharge – an increasing area of focus for proposed payment and reimbursement models.

“Since the original Patient Navigator Program launched, hospitals and cardiovascular care team members have led the way in developing effective ways to help manage patients’ heart health after they leave the hospital,” said ACC Immediate Past President Mary Norine Walsh, M.D., MACC. “UT Southwestern will be building on what we have learned to help hospitals across the country reduce readmission rates while improving patients’ long-term outcomes.”

UT Southwestern’s focus will be to reduce preventable readmissions for patients discharged with myocardial infarction (MI) by supporting a culture of patient-centered care during the hospital stay and in the weeks and months following discharge, thereby reducing mortality and improving quality of life. To accomplish this, UT Southwestern’s multidisciplinary team will employ new approaches and enhance existing methods to identify the best practices, supported by evidence-based tools, self-assessment, webinars, and the Action Registry dashboard.

Hospitals that enroll in the Patient Navigator Program: Focus MI access evidence-based toolkits, self-assessment tools, a learning community of national experts and peer colleagues, and an ACTION Registry dashboard specifically designed to track Patient Navigator Program: Focus MI metrics. The select 15 Diplomat Hospitals will focus on reducing 90-day readmissions for MI patients and provide mentorship for wider adoption of the program across other institutions.

AstraZeneca is the founding sponsor of the ACC Patient Navigator Program and Patient Navigator Program: Focus MI.

About UT Southwestern Medical Center

UT  Southwestern, one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty has received six Nobel Prizes, and includes 22 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 17 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 14 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The faculty of more than 2,700 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide care in about 80 specialties to more than 100,000 hospitalized patients, 600,000 emergency room cases, and oversee approximately 2.2 million outpatient visits a year.

The American College of Cardiology is the professional home for the entire cardiovascular care team. The mission of the College and its more than 52,000 members is to transform cardiovascular care and to improve heart health. The ACC leads in the formation of health policy, standards and guidelines. The College operates national registries to measure and improve care, offers cardiovascular accreditation to hospitals and institutions, provides professional medical education, disseminates cardiovascular research and bestows credentials upon cardiovascular specialists who meet stringent qualifications. For more, visit acc.org.