Dr. Sabe, Dr. Schweikert and Dr. Lewis
all agree that improving the quality of care
does indeed save lives.
"Quality care may not attract the atten-
tion of the media like new technology does,
but as the Trends study shows, it really
has the most dramatic ability to improve
outcomes in heart disease," says Dr. Lewis.
Robert Schweikert, MD, Chief of Cardiology at Akron General Medical Center
PHOTO
COURTESY
OF
AKRON
GENERAL
MEDICAL
CENTER,
AKRON
OH
Ahmed El Ghamry Sabe, MD,
Executive Director of Cardiovascular
Services at Mercy Medical Center in
Canton and Medical Director of Mercy
Heart Center
"For the hospitals that are doing a
lot of these things, the bar is really set
high," Dr. Schweikert points out. "And
once we achieve and exceed that bar,
we set it higher. It's a continual quality
improvement process. And it results in
better care, better outcomes, and more
lives saved." ■
"And it doesn't cost a lot of money to apply."
"Outcomes studies and the experience
of others are very important. Sometimes
we use the guidelines to be innovative, like
doing angioplasty within the ED," explains
Dr. Sabe. "So we need to highlight what
is really working and use those models
to improve."
PHOTO COURTESY OF MERCY MEDICAL CENTER, CANTON OH
2 0 1 5 M A R C H /A P R I L ■ M D N E W S . CO M ■ MD NEWS Cleveland/Akron/Canton
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