Lakewood Ranch Receives Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award with Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus
Dr. Andrew Faber, Team Health Facility Medical Director; Judy Young, LWRMC Chief Nursing Officer, Dr. Ralph Gonzalez, Medical Director LWRMC Stroke and Cerebrovascular Center; Kathy Fenelon, Regional VP Quality & Systems Improvement, American Heart Association and American Stroke Association; Christine Gonzalez, LWRMC Stroke Coordinator and Chris Loftus, LWRMC Chief Operating Officer
American Heart Association Award recognizes Lakewood Ranch Medical Center’s commitment to quality stroke care
Lakewood Ranch Medical Center has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award with Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus. The award recognizes the hospital’s commitment and success ensuring that stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.
To receive the Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award, hospitals must achieve 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke achievement indicators for at least 12 consecutive months and during the same period achieve 75 percent or higher compliance with five of eight Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality measures.
To qualify for the Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus, hospitals must meet quality measures developed to reduce the time between the patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with the clot-buster tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke. If given intravenously in the first three hours after the start of stroke symptoms, tPA has been shown to significantly reduce the effects of stroke and lessen the chance of permanent disability. Lakewood Ranch Medical Center earned the award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis of stroke and treatment of patients at a set level for a designated period.
These quality measures are designed to help hospital teams follow the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for patients experiencing stroke.
“A stroke patient loses 1.9 million neurons each minute stroke treatment is delayed. This recognition further demonstrates our commitment to delivering advanced stroke treatments to patients quickly and safely,” said Andy Guz, Chief Executive Officer, Lakewood Ranch Medical Center. “Lakewood Ranch Medical Center continues to strive for excellence in the acute treatment of stroke patients. The recognition from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke further reinforces our team’s hard work.”
Lakewood Ranch Medical Center has also met specific scientific guidelines as an Advanced Primary Stroke Center featuring a comprehensive system for rapid diagnosis and treatment of patients with stroke admitted to the emergency department.
“The American Heart Association and American Stroke Association recognize Lakewood Ranch Medical Center for its commitment to stroke care,” said Paul Heidenreich, MD, MS, 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 Get With The Guidelines program.”
Get With The Guidelines puts the expertise of the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association to work for hospitals nationwide, helping hospital care teams ensure that the care provided to patients is aligned with the latest research-based guidelines. Developed with the goal to save lives and improve recovery time, Get With The Guidelines has impacted more than three million patients since 2003.
According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the 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.