McLaren Bay Region has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Associations Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award.
The award recognizes the hospitals success in ensuring that stroke patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted standards and recommendations.
To receive the award, McLaren Bay Region achieved at least 12 consecutive months of 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality Achievement indicators and achieved at least 75 percent or higher compliance with six of 10 Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality Measures during that same period of time, which are reporting initiatives to measure quality of care.
According to the AHA/ASA, stroke is one of the leading causes of death and serious, long-term disability in the U.S. On average, someone suffers a stroke every 40 seconds and someone dies of a stroke every four minutes.
With a stroke, time lost is brain lost, and the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award demonstrates that our staff is committed to providing care that has been shown in the scientific literature to quickly and efficiently treat stroke patients with evidence-based protocols, said Dr. Mohammed Al-Qasmi, stroke program director for McLaren Bay Region.
McLaren Bay Region has also been recognized as a recipient of the associations Target: Stroke Honor Roll, for improving stroke care. Over the past quarter, at least 50 percent of the hospitals eligible ischemic stroke patients have received tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, within 60 minutes of arriving at the hospital. A clot-busting agent, tPA has been shown to significantly reverse the effects of stroke and reduce permanent disability if given in the first three hours of having a stroke.
The full implementation of acute care and secondary prevention recommendations and guidelines is a critical step in saving the lives and improving outcomes of stroke patients, said Dr. Lee H. Schwamm, chair of the Get With The Guidelines National Steering Committee
Get With The Guidelines-Stroke uses the time soon after a patient has had a stroke, when they are most likely to listen to and follow their healthcare professionals guidance. Studies demonstrate that patients who are taught how to manage their risk factors while still in the hospital reduce their risk of a second heart attack or stroke. Through Get With The Guidelines-Stroke, customized patient education materials are made available at the point of discharge, based on patients individual risk profiles. The take-away materials are written in an easy-to-understand format and are available in English and Spanish. In addition, the Get With The Guidelines Patient Management Tool provides access to up-to-date cardiovascular and stroke science at the point of care.
The time is right for McLaren Bay Region to be focused on improving the quality of stroke care by implementing Get With The Guidelines-Stroke, said Ronda Cunningham, stroke program liaison for McLaren Bay Region. The number of acute ischemic stroke patients eligible for treatment is expected to grow over the next decade due to increasing stroke incidence and a large aging population.
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McLaren Bay Region receives stroke care awards