To view this page ensure that Adobe Flash Player version 11.1.0 or greater is installed.
nonprofit
organization u.s. postage
PAID 405 Hilgard Avenue
Box 956923, Wilshire Center, Suite 1850
Los Angeles, CA 90095-6923
u c l a
U.S.News & World Report ’s
Best Hospital Survey ranks UCLA
No. 5 hospital in the country
and Best in the West.
GOLD L E V E L
ACHIEVEMENT CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT
e Recy
as N
CW P
CO TA
cle Ple
of MANAGED HEALTH CARE
UCLA Medical Group awarded
Gold Level Achievement for clinical
quality by the California Department
of Managed Health Care.
INS 10 %
UCLA Clinical Updates: The Latest Advances
• UCLA’s Highly Sensitized and Blood-Group-
Incompatible Kidney Transplant Program offers
two evidence-based immunotherapies that
work together to help highly sensitized patients
undergo kidney transplants.
• UCLA pelvic-floor reconstructive surgeons have
developed alternative procedures to provide
durable repair of pelvic-organ prolapse. This
follows a U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) warning that transvaginal placement
of surgical mesh for the repair of prolapsed
bladder, rectum, uterus or vaginal vault after
hysterectomy may expose patients to more risk
than other surgical options.
Program helps physicians implement
heart failure treatment guidelines
Continuing work to
improve outcomes
Following evidence-based
guidelines for treating heart-
failure patients saves lives,
improves patient quality of life,
prevents hospitalizations and
reduces medical costs. UCLA’s
innovative IMPROVE-HF
Performance Improvement
Initiative helps doctors follow
those guidelines.
UCLA researchers have developed tools to help physicians implement treatment
guidelines that have been shown to improve survival among heart-failure patients.
The UCLA-led IMPROVE HF Performance Improvement Initiative includes clinical
decision support and checklists with prompts and reminders that physicians can follow
in considering treatment options, thus helping match patients with the best therapies
to treat their heart failure.
Heart failure affects nearly 6 million people in the United States and has a high mortality
rate — about 250,000 patients die each year and nearly 1,000,000 hospitalizations
annually are primarily due to heart failure. And while strict adherence to evidence-based
treatment guidelines can save an estimated 68,000 lives a year, improve patient quality
of life, reduce the need for hospitalization and reduce medical costs, research has shown
that many patients don’t receive guideline-recommended care.
The UCLA Cardiac Hospitalization Atherosclerosis Management Program (CHAMP),
which was among the first performance-improvement systems to implement protective
therapies for those with coronary atherosclerosis or diabetes, served as a model for
the IMPROVE HF initiative. The purpose is to help physicians provide treatment that
adheres to the evidence-based guidelines and improves clinical outcomes.
WWW.UCLAHEALTH.ORG 1-800-UCLA-MD1
Researchers examined 167
cardiology and specialty
practices across the U.S. to see
how the treatment guidelines
were being followed and they
found gaps in how therapies
were being applied. “We
saw a prime opportunity for
improvement,” says Gregg
C. Fonarow, M.D., director
of the Ahmanson-UCLA
Cardiomyopathy Center and
co-chief of the UCLA Division
of Cardiology.
The IMPROVE HF initiative
provides support tools, including
focused algorithms, pocket cards,
patient education materials and
transition of care tools.
“We proved that using these
evidence-based therapies works
in the real world,” Dr. Fonarow
says. “It’s a challenge to follow
the heart-failure treatment
guidelines. Utilizing the
IMPROVE HF checklist helps
ensure nothing is overlooked.”
• The Revlon/UCLA Breast Center’s
Multidisciplinary Program enables patients with
breast cancer to consult with UCLA physicians
in all relevant specialties in a single afternoon.
• UCLA’s innovative IMPROVE HF Performance
Improvement Initiative helps doctors follow
evidence-based guidelines for treating heart-
failure patients to save lives, improve patient
quality of life, prevent hospitalizations and
reduce medical costs.
To download these and other clinical
advances at UCLA Health, go to:
www.uclahealth.org/clinicalupdates (1-800-825-2631)
Physicians Update
Winter 2013
Marketing director
Pattie Cuen
Manager, Marketing
Communications Judi Goodfriend
EDITOR David Greenwald
Four Smart Ways to Make Patient Referrals
Contributors NEW! e-Referral www.uclahealth.org/refer
CALL 1-800-UCLA-888 (825-2888)
A HIPAA-compliant, free, convenient way for community providers
to communicate with and refer patients to UCLA specialists.
Our physician referral nurse can answer your questions when
you call this for-physicians-only line.
FAX your patient referral to (310) 301-5391
e-mail access@mednet.ucla.edu
We’ll call your patient the same day to coordinate a referral, and
we’ll send you a follow-up letter.
@ Our physician referral nurse will respond.
www.uclahealth.org/MDeNews For more information about our UCLA physicians, go to:
Medical editors
David T. Feinberg, md, mba
Patricia Kapur, md
Design Donenfeld & Associates
Copyright © 2013 by UCLA Health.
All rights reserved.
SUBSCRIBE TO RECEIVE PHYSICIANS UPDATE ELECTRONICALLY
www.uclahealth.org/PhysicianDirectory Kimberly Enard
Dan Gordon
uclahealth.org/getsocial For inquiries about UCLA Physicians
Update, contact UCLA Health Marketing
Communications, Box 956923,
Los Angeles, CA 90095-6923
www.uclahealth.org