The award from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association recognizes the hospitals’ commitment to ensuring patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.
It is the fifth year UC Medical Center has received the designation and the first year for West Chester Hospital, which in December was certified as a Primary Stroke Center by The Joint Commission.
“UC Health is dedicated to improving the quality of care for our stroke patients by implementing the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke initiative,” said Dawn Kleindorfer, MD, co-director of the Comprehensive Stroke Center at the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute, and a professor of neurology and associate dean at the UC College of Medicine. “The tools and resources provided help us track and measure our success in meeting evidenced-based clinical guidelines developed to improve patient outcomes.”
Additionally, UC Medical Center has again received the association’s Target: Stroke Elite Plus award. To qualify for this recognition, hospitals must meet quality measures developed to reduce the time between the patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with the clot-buster tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke.
“We are pleased to recognize UC Health for their commitment to stroke care,” said Eric E. Smith, MD, national chairman of the Get With The Guidelines Steering Committee and an associate professor of neurology at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. “Research has shown that hospitals adhering to clinical measures through the Get With The Guidelines quality improvement initiative can often see fewer readmissions and lower mortality rates.”
According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the No. 5 cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the United States. On average, someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke every 40 seconds and nearly 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.