St. Mary’s Hospital of Troy has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines (GWTG)-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award. The award recognizes St. Mary’s commitment and success in ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.
To receive the Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award, hospitals must achieve 85 percent or higher adherence to GWTG-stroke achievement indicators for two or more consecutive years, and 75 percent or higher compliance with five of eight GWTG-stroke quality measures. St. Mary’s also received the GWTG-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award in 2015.
“We are committed to the highest quality care possible for our patients so we are pleased to once again be recognized with the gold level award for our stroke care,” said Norman E. Dascher, chief executive officer of Samaritan and St. Mary’s hospitals, and vice president of Acute Care Troy for SPHP. “St. Mary’s serves as an official Designated Stroke Center by the New York State Department of Health for prompt, coordinated care and treatment of strokes.”
“We are proud of this award which signifies the extraordinary efforts of our entire clinical team at St. Mary’s, including the physicians, nurses and ancillary support staff in our emergency department and stroke units who all work together as one to achieve the best possible care and outcomes for our stroke patients,” said Dorothy Urschel, vice president of the cardiac and vascular service line for SPHP.
“The American Heart Association and American Stroke Association recognize St. Mary’s Hospital for its commitment to stroke care,” said Paul Heidenreich, M.D., M.S., national chairman of the Get With The Guidelines Steering Committee and Professor of Medicine at Stanford University. “Research has shown there are benefits to patients who are treated at hospitals that have adopted the GWTG program.”
GWTG quality measures are designed to help hospital teams provide the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of saving lives, speeding recovery, and reducing disability for stroke patients. They focus on appropriate use of guideline-based care for stroke, including aggressive use of medications such as clot-busting and anti-clotting drugs, blood thinners and cholesterol-reducing drugs, preventive action for deep vein thrombosis and smoking cessation counseling. The program also includes best practice discharge protocols and real-time benchmarking capabilities to track performance, help patients manage their risk factors, and educate patients to recognize the warning signs of stroke.
According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is fifth 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 nearly 800,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year. For more information, please visit www.heart.org.
