| (ST. LOUIS) — Tenet Saint Louis' Saint Louis University Hospital, Des Peres Hospital and Forest Park Hospital announced they have received recognition from the American Heart Association as Get With The GuidelinesSM - Coronary Artery Disease hospitals. The recognition signifies that the three Tenet Saint Louis hospitals are participating in the American Heart Association's Get With The GuidelinesSM program. The quality improvement initiative is designed to reduce the risk of recurrent heart attacks by helping hospital staff follow proven evidence-based guidelines and procedures while coronary patients are in their care. Under the program, coronary patients are started on aggressive risk-reduction therapies such as cholesterol-lowering drugs, aspirin, ACE inhibitors and beta-blockers, in the hospital. They also receive smoking cessation and weight management counseling and referrals for cardiac rehabilitation before being discharged. These standards of care are outlined in the American Heart Association / American College of Cardiology secondary prevention guidelines for patients with coronary artery disease. "The full implementation of secondary prevention guidelines is a critical step in saving the lives of coronary patients," said Kenneth A. LaBresh, M.D., member of the American Heart Association's Get With The Guidelines Steering Committee. "The American Heart Association's Get With The GuidelinesSM program is designed to help hospitals, such as Saint Louis University Hospital, Des Peres Hospital and Forest Park Hospital, implement appropriate evidence-based guidelines and protocols that can help reduce the number of recurrent events and death in these patients." According to the American Heart Association, more than 450,000 people suffer recurrent heart attacks each year. Statistics also show that within six years after a heart attack, about 22 percent of men and 46 percent of women will be disabled with heart failure. Within one year of an attack, 25 percent of men and 38 percent of women may die. Research indicates that when patients are discharged from the hospital on appropriate medications such as aspirin, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors and lipid-lowering medicines, their risk of a second event can be reduced and lives can be saved. "Saint Louis University Hospital, Des Peres Hospital and Forest Park Hospital are dedicated to making their cardiac services among the best in the country. Implementing the American Heart Association's Get With The GuidelinesSM program, along with Tenet's Partnership for Change clinical quality improvement initiatives, may help them accomplish that goal," said Joe Burke, regional director of clinical process improvement, Tenet Saint Louis. Get With The GuidelinesSM is designed to help the hospitals' staff develop and implement a secondary prevention guideline process. The program includes quality-improvement measures such as care maps, discharge protocols, standing orders and measurement tools. Designed to be quick and efficient, these guideline tools may enable Saint Louis University Hospital, Des Peres Hospital and Forest Park Hospital to improve the quality of care they provide cardiac patients, save lives and ultimately, reduce health care costs by lowering the recurrence of heart attacks. Projections have shown that if the Get With The GuidelinesSM program was implemented nationwide, more than 80,000 lives could be saved each year. The American Heart Association program, developed with support from an unrestricted educational grant from Merck & Co., Inc., is being implemented in hospitals around the country. For more information on Get With The GuidelinesSM, visit www.americanheart.org and type "Get With The Guidelines" into the search box. Tenet Saint Louis is a 1,584-licensed bed system of academic and community hospitals and schools of nursing headed by Phillip S. Schaengold, J.D., Tenet corporate vice president, operations and Tenet Saint Louis CEO. Its facilities include Des Peres Hospital, Forest Park Hospital, Saint Louis University Hospital, SouthPointe Hospital and St. Alexius Hospital. The health system employs approximately 5,500 people and cares for patients from eastern Missouri, southern Illinois and beyond. Tenet Saint Louis is the fourth-largest employer in the city of St. Louis. Current Tenet Saint Louis hospitals combined provided care to more residents of the city of St. Louis who were hospitalized from October 1, 1999 through September 30, 2000 than any other health system. Tenet Healthcare Corporation, through its subsidiaries, owns and operates 114 acute care hospitals with 27,851 beds and numerous related health care services. Tenet and its subsidiaries employ approximately 115,300 people serving communities in 16 states. Tenet's name reflects its core business philosophy: the importance of shared values among partners - including employees, physicians, insurers and communities - in providing a full spectrum of health care. Tenet can be found on the World Wide Web at www.tenethealth.com <http://www.tenethealth.com>. # # # Certain statements in this release may constitute forward-looking statements. They are based on management's current expectations and could be affected by numerous factors and are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Certain of those risks and uncertainties are discussed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Do not rely on any forward-looking statement, as we cannot predict or control many of the factors that ultimately may affect our ability to achieve the results estimated. We make no promise to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of changes in underlying factors, new information, future events or otherwise. |