South Fulton Medical Center has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines® Stroke Silver Plus Performance Achievement Award. The award recognizes South Fulton Medical Center’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of stroke care by ensuring that stroke patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted standards and recommendations.
Last June, South Fulton Medical Center earned the Gold Seal of Approval™ from The Joint Commission for Advanced Primary Stroke Centers.
To receive the Get With The Guidelines Stroke Silver Plus Performance Achievement Award, South Fulton Medical Center achieved at least 12 consecutive months of 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines Stroke Performance Achievement indicators and achieved at least 75 percent or higher compliance with six of 10 Get With The Guidelines Stroke Quality Measures during that same period of time, which are reporting initiatives to measure quality of care.
“South Fulton Medical Center is committed to ensure our community has the highest standard of care, including those who may suffer from stroke,” says James Clements, CEO at South Fulton Medical Center. “The staff and physicians have worked diligently to build the stroke program and improves outcomes, and this award solidifies the efforts by our caregivers.”
These measures include aggressive use of medications, such as tPA, antithrombotics, anticoagulation therapy, DVT prophylaxis, cholesterol reducing drugs and smoking cessation, all aimed at reducing death and disability and improving the lives of stroke patients.
“With a stroke, time lost is brain lost, and the Get With The Guidelines Stroke Silver Plus Performance Achievement Award demonstrates that our staff is committed to providing care that has been shown to quickly and efficiently treat stroke patients with evidence-based protocols,” says Dana Meyer, chief nursing officer at South Fulton Medical Center.
“South Fulton Medical Center is to be commended for its commitment to implementing standards of care and protocols for treating stroke patients,” says Lee H. Schwamm, M.D., chair of the Get With The Guidelines National Steering Committee and director of the TeleStroke and Acute Stroke Services at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “The full implementation of acute care and secondary prevention recommendations and guidelines is a critical step in saving the lives and improving outcomes of stroke patients.”
Get With The Guidelines Stroke uses the “teachable moment,” the time soon after a patient has had a stroke, when they are most likely to listen to and follow their healthcare professionals’ guidance. Studies demonstrate that patients who are taught how to manage their risk factors while still in the hospital reduce their risk of a second heart attack or stroke.
“South Fulton Medical Center is focused on improving the quality of stroke care by implementing Get With The Guidelines Stroke. The number of acute ischemic stroke patients eligible for treatment is expected to grow over the next decade due to increasing stroke incidence and a large aging population,” says Meyer.
According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States and a leading cause of serious, long-term disability. On average, someone suffers a stroke every 45 seconds; someone dies of a stroke every three minutes; and 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.
For more information on Stroke Services at South Fulton Medical Center, or for a physician referral, call 404.466.WELL or visit southfultonmedicalcenter.com.