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To receive the award, Northern Westchester Hospital achieved 85 percent or higher adherence to all 10 Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality Achievement indicators for two or more consecutive 12-month intervals and achieved 75 percent or higher compliance in six of the measures, which are initiatives to measure quality of care.
The measures include aggressive use of medications, such as antithrombotics, anticoagulation therapy, deep vein thrombosis 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 Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award demonstrates Northern Westchester Hospital’s commitment to being one of the top hospitals in the country for providing aggressive, proven stroke care,” said Akira Todo, M.D., Director, Stroke Program, Northern Westchester Hospital.
“We will continue with our focus on providing care that has been shown in the scientific literature to quickly and effectively treat stroke patients with evidence-based protocols,” Todo added.
In addition to the Get With The Guideline-Stroke award Northern Westchester Hospital has also been recognized as a recipient of the association’s Target: Stroke Honor Roll, for improving stroke care.
“Northern Westchester Hospital is to be commended for its commitment to implementing standards of care and protocols for treating stroke patients,” said 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,” Schwamm added.
According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is one of the leading causes of death and serious, long-term 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.
“The time is right for Northern Westchester Hospital to be 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,” said Todo.
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