St. Francis Hospital Receives Stroke Gold Plus Achievement Award Again
Award demonstrates heart center’s commitment to quality care for stroke patients
ROSLYN, NY, May 23, 2012 – St. Francis Hospital, The Heart Center® has once again 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 implementing excellent care for stroke patients, according to evidence-based guidelines.
To receive the award, St. Francis achieved a high adherence to all of Stroke Quality Achievement indicators required for the recognition. These measures include aggressive use of medications, cholesterol reducing drugs, and smoking cessation, all aimed at reducing death and disability and improving the lives of stroke patients.
“With a stroke, time is of the essence. This award demonstrates our ongoing commitment to being one of the top hospitals in the country for providing aggressive, proven stroke care,” says Jack Soterakis, Senior Vice President, Medical Affairs and Medical Director at St. Francis Hospital. “We will continue with our focus on providing care that has been shown in medical literature to quickly and efficiently treat stroke patients with evidence-based protocols.”
“St. Francis Hospital 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.”
The guidelines use 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. Customized patient education materials are also 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.
“The time is right for us to be focused on improving the quality of stroke care by using these important guidelines. The number of acute ischemic stroke patients eligible for treatment is expected to grow over the next decade due to increasing stroke incidence, better recognition of symptoms, and a large aging population,” says Paul Wright, Director of the Stroke Center at St. Francis Hospital.
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.
Contact:
Paul Barry, 516-705-6657, paul.barry@chsli.org
Rosemary Gomez, 516-705-6656, rosemary.gomez@chsli.org
