University Hospital Heart Station reaches rare milestone for quality cardiac care

USA Health University Hospital’s Heart Station team was recently recognized for reaching a milestone no other hospital in the state has: a 20-year milestone award for earning continuous accreditation through the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC) Echocardiography.

The award was presented last week to the team by Jamie Creel, RN, BSN, director of the heart and vascular center at University Hospital. Cardiologists, health system leaders and others attended.

“This is an incredible honor, and no other facility in Alabama outside of one private cardiology office has met this standard,” she said. “This is a big deal for our cardiology department and Selina Godwin, ultrasonographer supervisor, who spends countless hours ensuring we meet the standard for this award.”

More than 2,800 facilities across the U.S. and Canada are currently accredited in adult or pediatric echocardiography, but a select group of facilities have demonstrated long-term commitment to quality through IAC Echocardiography, earning continuous accreditation for 10, 20 or 25 years.

“Twenty years is a long time, like a generation,” said Bassam Omar, M.D., Ph.D., FACC, cardiologist, director of the cardiovascular diseases fellowship and professor of internal medicine. “There have been a lot of changes in that time, but the commitment to quality and patient safety has never changed.”

Another member of the team joined the presentation virtually. Clara Massey, M.D., who retired as professor of internal medicine and director of the division of cardiology at USA Health in 2016, was part of the early years of echocardiography accreditation, and Omar’s mentor in the ’90s when he was a cardiology fellow.

“This requires an incredible amount of dedication, perseverance and commitment, especially from the sonographers,” Massey said. “I want to say how proud I am because it matters to people, patients and their families.”

Omar returned to USA Health full time in 2004, overseeing the cardiovascular disease fellowship as assistant director until he was promoted to program director in 2009. During that time, Christopher Malozzi, D.O., cardiologist and associate professor of internal medicine, was a fellow under Omar’s leadership.

“I’ve been around for almost all of the 20 years, and I’ve been around the best of the best,” Malozzi said. “You guys are held to the highest of standards, and the quality of the images allow us to take care of our patients better and teach our cardiovascular fellows better.”

After accepting the award, Godwin was quick to recognize the Heart Station team for the quality of work they do and the high standards they meet.

“It can be stressful at times,” she said, “but it’s worth it in the end.”

The value of earning IAC accreditation is multi-faceted. It helps demonstrate commitment to quality patient care, dedication to continuous quality improvement, and distinction from other facilities. It also complies with reimbursement mandates and regulatory requirements, helps standardize and optimize processes, achieve cost reductions and most importantly, continuously improve patient outcomes.

The IAC was established in 1991 to develop standards and methods for the evaluation of the quality of care delivered. Today, it provides peer review processes for multiple imaging modalities and intervention-based programs in the medical community. Its echocardiography accreditation was launched in 1997.