KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. (WVLT) -- When you suffer from heart failure...The quicker you get here... To the E-R, the better chance doctors have to save your life.
At Blount Memorial Hospital in Maryville, doctors are doing the best job among major hospitals in East Tennessee, of saving your life.
More than 90 percent of patients survive.

"I think it's paying extra attention to the things that need to be done for these heart failure patients," said Dr. Stephen Keifer of Blount Heart Consultants "The American College of Cardiology has specific guidelines of has heart failure patients are to be treated."

Re-admissions at Blount Memorial are higher than the other hospitals, but a spokesperson attributes that to the fact Blount Memorial serves five nursing homes, and the elderly are more likely to need readmission.

"I'm, 88 now so apparently they've done a lot for me"

Harris Cunningham is a good example. He suffers from a heart abnormality that went undetected and misdiagnosed for decades.

"Well they do the arteriogram from your groin up and they put dye and stuff in there and watch it on the monitor and that's when they said I was okay till I had my heart attack. Then she said it was a little generic bad artery on the front side of my heart."

Methodist Medical Center in Oak Ridge is also proud of its relatively low heart failure death rate of ten-point-eight percent. Doctors there believe education is key to keeping you alive and out of the hospital.

"If we're able to follow up with these patients in a timely manner we're able to prevent more heart failure admissions within a 30-day period which is the big problem," said Milan Sheth, DO, of Parkway Cardiology Associates.