American Heart Association Award recognizes Palmetto General Hospital’s commitment to quality stroke care
Palmetto General Hospital receives 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 to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.
Palmetto General Hospital earned the award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients at a set level for a designated period. These measures include evaluation of the proper use of medications and other stroke treatments aligned with the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. Before discharge, patients should also receive education on managing their health, get a follow-up visit scheduled, as well as other care transition interventions.“Palmetto General Hospital is dedicated to improving the quality of care for our stroke patients by implementing the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke initiative,” said Ana Mederos, Palmetto General Hospital CEO. “This recognition demonstrates that we are on the right track, and we’re very proud of our team.”
Palmetto General Hospital additionally received the association’s Target: StrokeSM 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 Palmetto General Hospital for their commitment to stroke care,” said Eric E. Smith, M.D., 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.
Palmetto General has improved its services to its patients in the ER, outpatient or inpatient scenarios. The administration has done a wonderful job of employing a higher caliber of professionals, and truly dedicating their time and effort to make sure each patient is treated as through we are all family. I am a “frequent flyer”, and the Hospital has helped me through several crises, recently last year at the end of June, beginning of July, the ER doctors placed me on a 12 day program to control the transient ischemic attacks I had on occasion. As a result, I have not had to return to the hospital, and so far the clotting is under control. I was also treated for a cerebrovascular accident secondary to having bariatric Roux-en-Y surgery over a year after 2014. I many not have mentioned it personally to the ER doctors, but I truly appreciate all they have done for me, my children and all my family. Congratulations to you and all your awards. Thank for all you do.