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Wooster Community Hospital (WCH) Health System recently received the Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award for the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines® – Stroke program along with two additional accolades for our commitment to quality healthcare delivery.
WOOSTER COMMUNITY HOSPITAL’S DEDICATION
“Wooster Community 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 Karrie Boss, a clinical nurse specialist at Wooster Community Hospital Health System.
WCH’s diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients demonstrated at least 85% compliance with the achievement measures under the Get With The Guidelines program. These measures are designed to align a patient’s stroke treatment regimen with the latest evidence-based guidelines. These key achievement measures are also recognized by and consistent with other organizations.
Boss adds, “The tools and resources provided help us track and measure our success in meeting evidenced-based clinical guidelines developed to improve patient outcomes.”
CONTINUED COMMITMENT TO QUALITY PATIENT CARE
WCH also received two additional awards in a testament to our quality treatment services: The American Heart Association Association’s Target: StrokeSM Honor Roll award and the Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll award.
The Target: StrokeSM Honor Roll award is given to hospitals that satisfy quality measures designed to decrease the gap between a patient arriving at the hospital and receiving tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) for treatment. To date, tPA is the only FDA-approved medical therapy for ischemic stroke, a type of stroke where a blood clot blocks an artery leading to the brain.
On the other hand, the Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll award affirms that WCH was able to comply with over 90% of the quality measures developed in the Overall Diabetes Cardiovascular Initiative Composite Score for 12 consecutive months.
IMPROVING STROKE TREATMENT
The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines® program helps hospitals and medical professionals improve patient outcomes by giving them resources to apply the latest evidence-based treatment guidelines. In particular, the Stroke program aims to improve stroke care.
Silver Plus and Gold Plus Quality Awards are granted to hospitals for consistent compliance with Quality Measures.
A Silver award recognizes a hospital’s compliance with the stroke achievement measures for 12 consecutive months. The achievement measures take into consideration the timeliness of patient care using the “IV rtPA arrive by 2 hours, treat by 3 hours” criteria. This measures the percentage of acute ischemic stroke patients who are brought to the hospital within two hours since they exhibited symptoms and for whom IV tPA was administered within three hours of symptom onset.
The specific achievement measures also evaluate six other aspects of a hospital’s stroke response including early antithrombotics, VTE prophylaxis, antithrombotics upon discharge, anticoagulation for AFib/Aflutter, smoking cessation (counseling during hospital stay), and statin prescribed at discharge.
Research has shown that hospitals able to meet the program’s clinical measures can often observe fewer readmissions and lower mortality rates.
STROKE IN THE US
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, stroke is the fifth leading cause of death in the United States. It affects more than 795,000 people and kills about 140,000 every year.
Stroke requires early medical intervention to avoid causing serious long-term disability. Hospitals must act fast to increase a patient’s chances of survival. A survey of stroke patients reveals that in contrast with patients who received delayed care, those who were brought to the emergency room within 3 hours of their first symptoms often have fewer complications 3 months after the stroke occurred.
QUALITY STROKE CARE IN WOOSTER, OHIO
At Wooster Community Hospital, we strive to give stroke patients the quality care and treatment they need to get back on their feet.
After consistently meeting high standards for stroke care, the hospital has received certification as a Primary Stroke Center from DNV GL Healthcare. Our Primary Stroke Center is a full-service and acute-care health facility with advanced resources for treating a broad range of stroke-related medical problems.
Named as one of the country’s top hospitals by IBM Watson Health™ for the sixth time in 2020, WCH is committed to delivering improved patient outcomes year after year, ensuring you can get award-winning healthcare close to home.
You may contact us by calling (330) 263-8495 or schedule an appointment online, and our appointment scheduler is sure to respond within 48 hours. We look forward to being your go-to healthcare partner!
