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Hoag Hospital Receives American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines Silver Performance Achievement Award
The American Stroke Association recently awarded Hoag Hospital its Get With The GuidelinesSM–Stroke (GWTG–Stroke) Silver Performance Achievement Award at the association’s International Stroke Conference 2008. The award recognizes Hoag’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.
“With a stroke, time lost is brain lost, and the GWTG–Stroke Silver Performance Achievement Award addresses the important element of time,” said David Brown, MD, medical director of Hoag’s Stroke Program, a program within Hoag Neurosciences Center. “With a rapid response stroke team and the highest quality of inpatient care, Hoag Hospital provides patients with immediate treatment at the first sign of distress in order to achieve the best outcomes after stroke.”
To receive the GWTG-Stroke Silver Performance Achievement Award, Hoag Hospital consistently maintained this level of performance for at least one year, complying with the requirements in the GWTG–Stroke program, which include aggressive use of medications like tPA, antithrombotics, anticoagulation therapy, DVT prophylaxis, cholesterol reducing drugs, and smoking cessation.
“The American Stroke Association commends Hoag Hospital for its success in implementing standards of care and protocols,” said Lee H. Schwamm, M.D., national Get With the Guidelines Steering Committee Member and director of 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.”
“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,” said Dr. Brown. “Hoag is well equipped and committed to providing the highest level of stroke care to this growing patient population. And the GWTG-Stroke Silver Performance Achievement Award further confirms that we are among the best stroke centers in the nation in our compliance with implementation of evidence-based therapies for acute stroke, which help to ensure the best outcomes for stroke patients.
According to the American Stroke Association, each year approximately 780,000 people suffer a stroke—600,000 are first attacks and 180,000 are recurrent. Of stroke survivors aged 49 and older, 21 percent of men and 24 percent of women die within a year. For those aged 70 and older, the percentages are even higher.
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