Via Christi Stroke Center earns Get with the Guidelines-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award and Stroke Honor Roll Designation
Via Christi’s Stroke Center has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award — the organization’s highest award for stroke care — for the second year in a row.
“This award is a wonderful recognition of the work of our outstanding team of physicians and employees who are dedicated to doing their best to care for stroke patients by ensuring that evidence-based care processes are consistently delivered,” said Sherry Hausmann, president of Via Christi Hospital on St. Francis.
To receive the award, Via Christi met each of the program’s stroke measures at 85 percent or higher for 24 consecutive months and ranked 75 percent or higher for additional quality measures, such as use of the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale at admission; aggressive use of medications such as tPA, antithrombotics, anticoagulation therapy and cholesterol reducing drugs; and smoking cessation — all aimed at reducing death and disability and improving the lives of stroke patients.
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| Jim Walker, MD |
This year, Via Christi also earned for the first time the association’s Target: Stroke Honor Roll designation for improving stroke care. During at least one calendar quarter, at least 50 percent of Via Christi’s eligible ischemic stroke patients have received tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, within 60 minutes of arriving at the hospital (known as ‘door-to-needle’ time). A thrombolytic, or clot-busting agent, tPA is the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the urgent treatment of ischemic stroke. If given intravenously in the first three hours after the start of stroke symptoms, tPA has been shown to significantly reverse the effects of stroke and reduce permanent disability.
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| Sarah Brown, RN, BSN |
“In patients with an acute stroke, prompt recognition, treatment and secondary prevention are critical,” said Jim Walker, MD, medical director of the Stroke Center. “Achieving Target: Stroke Honor Roll designation validates Via Christi’s commitment to being one of the top hospitals in the country for providing aggressive, proven stroke care.”
Via Christi Hospital will be recognized during the International Stroke Conference in February, in the spring issue of Stroke Journal, in the July “Best Hospitals” issue of U.S. News & World Report, and on AHA’s website, heart.org.
“Stroke measures are evidence-based practice guidelines that are shown to improve patient outcomes after a stroke,” said Sarah Brown, RN, BSN, manager, Neuroscience Services. “Achieving this type of award requires a team approach among physicians, nurses, pharmacists, rehabilitation staff, etc., and demonstrates that consistent processes are in place to ensure every patient receives the same standard of care.”
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