Christiana Care receives Get With The Guidelines–Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award
Christiana Care Health System’s Center for Heart & Vascular Health has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®–Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award.
The award recognizes Christiana Care’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of stroke care by ensuring that stroke patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted standards and recommendations.
To receive the award, Christiana Care achieved at least 12 consecutive months of 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality Achievement indicators and at least 75 percent or higher compliance with six of 10 Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality Measures during that same period of time. Both sets of indicators measure quality of care.
The 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,” said Timothy J. Gardner, M.D., medical director of the Center for Heart & Vascular Health and past national president of the American Heart Association. “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.”
Get With The Guidelines-Stroke uses the “teachable moment,” the time soon after patients have had a stroke, when they are most likely to listen to and follow their health care professionals’ guidance. Studies demonstrate that patients 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, we provide our patients with customized, easy to understand patient education materials when they leave the hospital, based on their individual risk profiles,” said Anthony Munson, M.D., medical director of the Stroke Program. “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.”
According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is one of the leading causes of death and serious, long-term 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.
Christiana Care’s Center for Heart & Vascular Health is one of the most technologically advanced cardiovascular care centers in the United States. In 2010 it earned The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval™ for its treatment of stroke and a three-star rating for heart surgery, the highest available, from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons.