Tomorrow in Room W101, ACC.09 will feature a “D2B: Sustain the Gain” symposium featuring experts in the field discussing current topics in STEMI care. If you’re asking yourself right now: I thought it was called “D2B: An Alliance for Quality?” – you’re right, it was. “D2B: Sustain the Gain” represents Phase 2 of the campaign. Since Phase 1 (An Alliance for Quality) was such a success [go to the Participant’s Workshop tomorrow morning, from 7 – 9 a.m. at the Rosen Centre Hotel, Salon 3, to hear why], the ACC is using D2B: Sustain the Gain to figure out how we can maintain those gains. It’s clear that there are many challenges inherent in sustaining D2B times of 90 minutes or less. We’ll be developing materials and support tools that hospitals need to continue their success.

Quality efforts like D2B are crucial in making a difference in health care reform efforts. The federal government doesn’t have to tell cardiologists to improve quality – cardiologists are working together to do it themselves. Through D2B, we’re making serious in-roads in improving quality – and I know from my visits to the Hill, lawmakers are taking notice.

Meanwhile, stay tuned this summer for the ACC’s newest national quality improvement initiative, Hospital to Home (H2H). With H2H, we’ve set a measurable goal of reducing the 30-day all-cause readmission rate for patients with heart failure or heart attack by December 2012. To register for this program in advance visit: www.acc.org/h2h/enrollment. This is an exciting opportunity to improve patient care and reduce preventable and costly readmissions. We have a great partner in IHI for this initiative as well.

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