Baptist Going for Gold Receives Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Special guests joined Baptist's Stroke Team in presenting them
with the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's
Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement
Award. Earl Coleman, Quality Improvement Initiatives director
with American Heart Association/American Stroke Association
pictured on the right of the front row, joined stroke survivor
Jerry Vardaman pictured center and William Bassett, Medstat
director of administration with Flight Medic pictured far right in
honoring the team for the award.
The award recognizes Baptist'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 Get With The
Guidelines-Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award, Baptist
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.
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 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 Keith
Jones, M.D., Medical Director of Baptist's Stroke Program.
"Baptist 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 provides access to up-to-date
cardiovascular and stroke science at the point of care.
"The time is right for Baptist to be focused on improving the
quality of stroke care by implementing Get With The
Guidelines-Stroke. 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," said
Dr. Jones.
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.
