Cedar Community Commits to Improving Heart Failure Care via American Heart Association Program 

Cedar Community, a nonprofit, faith-based senior retirement community located in West Bend, Wis., is working to tackle the growing problem of heart failure in America. Approximately six million Americans live with the condition—a number expected to reach epidemic proportions as the population ages. Heart failure (HF) ranks among the costliest health conditions to treat and takes a tremendous toll on patients’ quality of life and longevity, according to the American Heart Association (AHA), the world’s leading voluntary health organization devoted to a world of longer, healthier lives for all.  

Cedar Community has joined more than two dozen health care systems across the country adopting AHA’s IMPLEMENT-HF™ initiative, which launched in 2020. Chicago-based CHHSM member agency Advocate Health will also be part of the initiative. 

“Cedar Community joined the American Heart Association’s call, demonstrating our commitment to quality heart failure care,” said Heather Suarez Del Real, director of nursing. “This national initiative aims to create a health care ecosystem for heart failure that emphasizes implementation science and patient engagement.” 

IMPLEMENT-HF will work to bridge communication and coordination between care settings, health care professionals, and patients to achieve precise heart failure management and improve outcomes.  

The initiative will use established AHA primary data collection approaches, including the Association’s hospital-based Get With The Guidelines® – Heart Failure program, to identify, implement and evaluate processes to develop new standards for heart failure patient management.