Saint Luke’s Hospital receives 2015 Get With The Guidelines–Stroke Gold Plus Award
Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award with Target: StrokeSM Honor Roll Elite. The award recognizes the hospital’s commitment and success ensuring that stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.
To receive the Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award, hospitals must achieve 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke achievement indicators for two or more consecutive 12-month periods and achieved 75 percent or higher compliance with five of eight Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality measures.
To qualify for the Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite, 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. If given intravenously in the first three hours after the start of stroke symptoms, tPA has been shown to significantly reduce the effects of stroke and lessen the chance of permanent disability. Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City 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 quality measures are designed to help hospital teams provide the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients.
“With a stroke, time lost is brain lost, and this award demonstrates our commitment to ensuring patients receive care based on nationally-respected clinical guidelines,” said Karin Olds, M.D., stroke program medical director. “Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City is dedicated to improving the quality of stroke care and the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke helps us achieve that goal.”
Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City has also met specific scientific guidelines as a Comprehensive Stroke Center, featuring a comprehensive system for rapid diagnosis and treatment of the most complex stroke patients who either arrive in the emergency department or are transferred in from other hospitals in the region.
“We are pleased to recognize Saint Luke’s Hospital for their commitment 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 Women’s 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 length of stay and 30-day readmission rates and reduce disparities in care.”
For providers, Get With The Guidelines-Stroke offers quality improvement measures, discharge protocols, standing orders and other measurement tools. Providing hospitals with resources and information that make it easier to follow treatment guidelines can help save lives and ultimately reduce overall healthcare costs by lowering readmission rates for stroke patients.
For patients, Get With The Guidelines-Stroke uses the “teachable moment,” the time soon after a patient has had a stroke, when they learn how to manage their risk factors while still in the hospital and recognize the F.A.S.T. warning signs of a stroke.
According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the number five 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.
Saint Luke’s Marion Bloch Neuroscience Institute (SLMBNI) is a comprehensive center for neuroscience research, education, and evidence-based medicine that combines faculty in neurology, neurosurgery, interventional neuroradiology, neurootology, psychiatry, and physical medicine and rehabilitation. Together SLMBNI faculty provides patient-centered leading-edge care to thousands of patients from all over the country each year. As a member of Saint Luke’s Health System, SLMBNI is a global leader in utilizing both drug and mechanical interventions to reverse the permanent and debilitating effects of ischemic stroke. Its legacy of innovation began in 1993 when doctors performed one of the world’s first intra-arterial stroke reversal procedures. Since then, Saint Luke’s specialists have continued to pioneer new stroke treatments and reverse strokes in thousands of patients through its network of stroke centers. Located in Kansas City, Mo., SLMBNI brings together a team of highly specialized neuroscientists to provide comprehensive treatment for the most complex neurological diseases, including stroke, epilepsy, brain tumors, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, multiple sclerosis, headaches and facial pain, as well as aneurysms and intracerebral hemorrhages. The Institute’s multispecialty team provides the latest in minimally invasive spinal surgical techniques for the treatment of acute and chronic back pain. SLMBNI strives to be a national leader in neurological treatment and care by advancing clinical research and evidence-based clinical practice.
Saint Luke’s Health System consists of 10 area hospitals and several primary and specialty care practices, and provides a range of inpatient, outpatient, and home care services. Founded as a faith-based, not-for-profit organization, our mission includes a commitment to the highest levels of excellence in health care and the advancement of medical research and education. The health system is an aligned organization in which the physicians and hospitals assume responsibility for enhancing the physical, mental, and spiritual health of people in the metropolitan Kansas City area and the surrounding region.