South Florida Baptist Hospital has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award.
The award recognizes the hospital’s commitment and success in ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines from the latest scientific evidence.
To receive the Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award, hospitals must achieve 85% or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke achievement indicators for two or more consecutive 12-month periods and achieved 75% or higher compliance with five of eight Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality measures.
These quality measures are designed to help hospital teams provide updated guidelines to shorten recovery time, and reduce death and disability for stroke patients. Care for stroke patients includes aggressive use of medications, such as clot-busting and anti-clotting drugs, blood thinners and cholesterol-reducing drugs, preventive action for deep vein thrombosis and smoking cessation counseling.
“With a stroke, time lost is brain lost, and this award demonstrates our commitment to ensuring patients receive care based on nationally-respected clinical guidelines,” hospital President Karen Kerr said. “When a patient comes to our Emergency Center with stroke symptoms, we are prepared to respond during that critical time period because we are staffed with expert medical care, highly trained clinicians and the very latest in imaging services.”
South Florida Baptist Hospital also has met specific scientific guidelines as a Primary Stroke Center.
According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the number five 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 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.
For patients, Get With The Guidelines-Stroke can help stroke patients to manage their risk factors while still in the hospital and recognize the warning signs of a stroke.