Phelps Receives Silver Award for Excellence in Stroke Care
PHELPS MEMORIAL HOSPITAL RECOGNIZED FOR IMPLEMENTING QUALITY CARE FOR HEART DISEASE AND STROKE PATIENTS
The American Stroke and American Heart Associations recently awarded Phelps Memorial Hospital a "Get With the Guidelines-Stroke" (GWTG-Stroke) Silver Performance Achievement Award for excellence in stroke care. The award recognizes the hospital's success in providing a high level of stroke care by ensuring that patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted standards and recommendations.
To receive the award, the hospital needed to demonstrate excellence in achieving
numerous GWTG treatment guidelines for 12 consecutive months. The 12-month evaluation
period is the second in an ongoing self-evaluation by the hospital to continually
achieve levels of excellence.
"I am so proud of our dedicated nurses who have made this award possible,
as well as staff of the Emergency Department, the Intensive Care Unit, the Stroke
Unit, the Inpatient Physical Rehabilitation Unit and everyone else at Phelps
involved in making our stroke program a success," said Dr. Sanda Carniciu,
Physician Director of the Stroke Center at Phelps.
In addition to Dr. Carniciu, the Stroke Team is comprised of the hospital's
medical director, the Emergency Department medical director and nurses, quality
assurance staff, non-ED nursing staff, physical, occupational and speech rehabilitation
therapists, and radiologists and hospitalists. "We look forward to continuing
to provide the highest quality of care for patients and their families, and
we're hopeful that this will be the first of many awards to come," added
Dr. Carniciu.
As a Stroke Center, Phelps has developed a comprehensive system for rapid diagnosis
and treatment of stroke patients admitted to the Emergency Department. This
includes always being equipped to provide brain imaging scans, having neurologists
available to conduct patient evaluations and, when appropriate, the aggressive
use of medications like tPA, antithrombotics, and anticoagulation therapy, DVT
prophylaxis, cholesterol-reducing drugs and smoking cessation counseling.
According to the American Stroke Association, each year approximately 700,000
people suffer a stroke - 500,000 are first attacks and 200,000 are recurrent
attacks. Of stroke survivors, 21 percent of men and 24 percent of women die
within a year, and for those aged 65 and older, the percentage is even higher.
"The American Stroke Association commends Phelps Hospital for its success
in implementing standards of care and protocols," said Lee H. Schwamm,
MD, national GWTG steering committee member and director of the 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."
Hospitals are recognized in each category in which they achieve at least 85
percent compliance to Get With The Guidelines measures. Those hospitals marking
85 percent compliance for 24 consecutive months are given the Gold Performance
Achievement Award, with the Silver Performance Achievement award going to those
with 85 percent compliance for 12 consecutive months.
Get With The Guidelines is a hospital-based quality-improvement program designed
to ensure that hospitals consistently care for cardiac and stroke patients following
the most up-to-date guidelines and recommendations. The program addresses coronary
artery disease, heart failure and stroke. Currently more than 1,450 hospitals
participate in the program.
"The American Heart Association is pleased to recognize its top Get With
The Guidelines participants," said. Lee Schwamm, M.D., national chairman,
of the Get With The Guidelines steering committee, associate professor of neurology
at Harvard Medical School and Vice Chairman of Neurology at Massachusetts General
Hospital. "Healthcare providers who use Get With The Guidelines are armed
with the latest evidence-based guidelines and immediate access to clinical decision
support. The goal of this initiative is to ultimately improve the quality of
life and help reduce deaths among heart and stroke patients."
About Get With The Guidelines
Get With The GuidelinesSM (GWTG) is the American Heart Association/American
Stroke Association's hospital-based quality improvement program that empowers
healthcare teams to save lives and reduce healthcare costs by helping hospitals
follow evidence-based guidelines and recommendations. For more information,
visit americanheart.org/getwiththeguidelines