OakBend Medical Center has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines Stroke Gold Plus Performance Achievement Award. The award recognizes OakBend’s “commitment and success in implementing excellent care for stroke patients,” according to evidence-based guidelines.
Shown are Bhavisha Patel, RN, stroke coordinator, Jody Jones-Noirot, senior vice president and Jackson Street Campus administrator, Amitabh Shukla, Stroke Program medical director , Peggy Smith, American Heart Association representative and Sue McCarty, vice president and Williams Way Campus administrator.
To receive the award, OakBend achieved of 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Performance Achievement indicators for two or more consecutive 12-month intervals and achieved 75 percent or higher compliance with six of 10 Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality Measures, which are reporting initiatives to measure quality of care.
These measures include aggressive use of medications, such as tPA, antithrombotics, anticoagulation therapy, DVT prophylaxis, cholesterol reducing drugs and smoking cessation, all aimed at reducing death and disability and improving the lives of stroke patients.
“With a stroke, time lost is brain lost, and the Get With The Guidelines–Stroke Gold Plus Performance Achievement Award demonstrates OakBend Medical Center’s commitment to being one of the top hospitals in the country for providing aggressive, proven stroke care,” said Jody Jones Noirot, Oak Bend’s senior vice president and Jackson Street Campus Hospital administrator. “We will continue with our focus on providing care that has been shown in the scientific literature to quickly and efficiently treat stroke patients with evidence-based protocols.”
“OakBend is to be commended for its commitment to implementing standards of care and protocols for treating stroke patients,” said Lee H. Schwamm, M.D., chair of the Get With The Guidelines National Steering Committee and director of the TeleStroke and Acute Stroke Services at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “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.”
Get With The Guidelines–Stroke uses the “teachable moment,” 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 gives healthcare providers access to up-to-date cardiovascular and stroke science at the point of care.
