SPRINGFIELD, PA – Crozer-Chester Medical Center, Delaware County Memorial Hospital and Taylor Hospital have received the Get With The Guidelines® ─ Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association for the treatment of stroke patients. In addition, Taylor Hospital has been awarded the Get With The Guidelines® ─ Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award.
Get With The Guidelines ─ Stroke helps hospital teams provide the most up-to-date, research-based guidelines for treatment with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. Crozer, DCMH and Taylor earned the awards by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients at a set level for a designated period. These measures include aggressive use of medications and risk-reduction therapies aimed at reducing death and disability, and improving the lives of stroke patients.
Crozer was also named to the association’s Target: Stroke Honor Roll, and DCMH was named to the Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite for meeting stroke quality measures that reduce the time between hospital arrival and treatment with the clot-buster tPA, the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke. People who suffer a stroke and receive the drug within three hours of the onset of symptoms may recover quicker and are less likely to suffer severe disability.
“Crozer, DCMH and Taylor are dedicated to improving the quality of stroke care, and The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines – Stroke program helps us achieve that goal,” says Suzanne Hefton, R.N., stroke coordinator for Crozer-Keystone Health System. “With these awards, our hospitals demonstrate our commitment to ensure that our patients receive care based on internationally respected clinical guidelines.”
“We are pleased to recognize Crozer-Chester Medical Center, Delaware County Memorial Hospital and Taylor Hospital for their commitment and dedication to stroke care,” says Deepak L. Bhatt, M.D., M.P.H., national chairman of the Get With The Guidelines steering committee and executive director of Interventional Cardiovascular Programs at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “Studies have shown that hospitals that consistently follow Get With The Guidelines quality improvement measures can reduce patients’ length-of-stays and 30-day readmission rates, and reduce disparity gaps in care.”
Get With The Guidelines–Stroke also helps Crozer, DCMH and Taylor’s staff implement prevention measures, which include educating stroke patients to manage their risk factors and to be aware of warning signs for stroke, and ensuring they take their medications properly. Hospitals can make customized patient education materials available upon discharge, based on patients’ individual risk profiles. The take-away materials are written in an easy-to-understand format.
“DCMH has demonstrated a commitment toward quality stroke care in the pre-hospital, acute hospital and rehabilitation phases since 2007,” says Joseph Lubeck, D.O., medical director of the Stroke Program at DCMH. “This award reaffirms our hospital’s ability to meet the high standards set by the American Heart Association. The AHA has raised the bar and we have met the challenge.”
“The ASA Stroke Award is a tremendous honor to our stoke program,” says Kesha Wilford, M.D., medical director of the Stroke Programs at Crozer and Taylor. “The Crozer-Keystone Health System is dedicated to giving our patients top-notch care, and receiving this award again helps to confirm our continued exemplary care. I am very proud of our stroke program and we are looking forward to receiving the ASA Stroke Award again next year!”
According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the number-four cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the United States. On average, someone suffers a stroke every 40 seconds; someone dies of a stroke every four minutes; and 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.
To learn more about Crozer-Keystone Health System’s stroke services, visit www.crozerkeystone.org/stroke.
###
About Get With The Guidelines
Get With The Guidelines® is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program that provides hospitals with the latest research-based guidelines. Developed with the goal of saving lives and hastening recovery, Get With The Guidelines has touched the lives of more than 4 million patients since 2001. For more information, visit heart.org/quality or heart.org/myhealthcare.
Mary Wascavage
Director, Public Relations and Marketing | Delaware County Memorial Hospital & Taylor Hospital
Phone: 610.284.8619 | Fax: 610.284.8606
[email protected]
