Kingwood Medical Center has received the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Gold-Plus Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association for the treatment of stroke patients.
The award recognizes Kingwood Medical Centers commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care by ensuring that stroke patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted guidelines.
This marks the second year that Kingwood Medical Center has been recognized with the Gold-Plus Quality Achievement Award.
Get With The Guidelines Stroke helps hospital teams provide the most up-to-date, research-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. Kingwood Medical Center 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 aggressive use of medications and risk-reduction therapies aimed at reducing death and disability and improving the lives of stroke patients.
Kingwood Medical Center also received the associations Target: Stroke Honor Roll for meeting stroke quality measures that reduce the time between hospital arrival and treatment with the clot-buster tPA, the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke.
People who suffer a stroke who receive the drug within three hours of the onset of symptoms may recover quicker and are less likely to suffer severe disability.
The Brain and Spine Center at Kingwood Medical Center is dedicated to making our care for stroke patients among the best in the country. The American Heart Association/American Stroke Associations Get With The GuidelinesStroke program helps us achieve this goal, said Melinda Stephenson, CEO of Kingwood Medical Center. With this award, our hospital demonstrates our commitment to ensure that our patients receive care based on internationally-respected clinical guidelines and that our staff implements prevention measures, which include educating stroke patients to manage their risk factors and to be aware of warning signs for stroke.
We are pleased to recognize Kingwood Medical Center for their commitment and dedication to stroke care, said Deepak L. Bhatt, M.D., M.P.H., national chairman of the Get With The Guidelines steering committee and Executive Director of Interventional Cardiovascular Programs at Brigham and Womens Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Studies have shown that hospitals that consistently follow Get With The Guidelines quality improvement measures can reduce patients length of stays and 30-day readmission rates and reduce disparity gaps in care.
According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the number four 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.
Link:
Kingwood Medical Center receives Stroke Gold-Plus Quality Achievement Award