St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital Receives Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award
St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital (St. Luke’s) has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award. The award recognizes St. Luke’s commitment and success in implementing excellent care for stroke patients, according to evidence-based guidelines.
“St. Luke’s is to be commended for its commitment to implementing standards of care and protocols for treating stroke patients,” said Lee H. Schwamm, MD, 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.”
St. Luke’s achieved a minimum 85 percent adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality Achievement indicators for two or more consecutive 12-month intervals and achieved a minimum 75 percent compliance with six of 10 Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality Measures, 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.
“This recognition further demonstrates St. Luke’s commitment to being one of the top hospitals in the nation for providing aggressive, proven stroke care,” said Jose Suarez, MD, medical director of stroke and neurocritical care for St. Luke’s. “Our neurology team is dedicated to providing the highest quality care to stroke patients, as well as to their caretakers.”
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.
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.
For more information about the St. Luke’s neurology program, visit StLukesHouston.com/neuro or contact a St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital Neurology Coordinator at 832-355-2187.
