Long Beach Memorial Receives Get With The Guidelines - Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award with Target: Stroke Honor Roll

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 achieve 75 percent or higher compliance with five of eight Get With The Guidelines - Stroke Quality measures to receive the Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award.

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. Long Beach Memorial 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 follow the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients.

"A stroke patient loses 1.9 million neurons each minute stroke treatment is delayed," says Angie West, RN, MSN, CCRN-K, SCRN, ANVP, director, Comprehensive Stroke Center, Long Beach Memorial. "This recognition further demonstrates our commitment to delivering advanced stroke treatments to patients quickly and safely. Long Beach Memorial continues to strive for excellence in the acute treatment of stroke patients. The recognition from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's Get With The Guidelines - Stroke further reinforces our team's hard work."

The MemorialCare Neuroscience Institute also is recognized as the 3^rd Joint Commission Certified Comprehensive Stroke Center in Los Angeles County, demonstrating compliance with stroke-related standards as a Primary Stroke Center and meet additional requirements, including those related to advanced imaging capabilities, 24/7 availability of specialized treatments and providing staff with the unique education and competencies to care for complex stroke patients. 

"The American Heart Association and American Stroke Association recognize  Long Beach Memorial for its commitment to stroke care," says Paul Heidenreich, M.D., M.S., national chairman of the Get With The Guidelines Steering Committee and Professor of Medicine at Stanford University. "Research has shown there are benefits to patients who are treated at hospitals that have adopted the Get With The Guidelines program."

Get With The Guidelines - Stroke puts the expertise of the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association to work for hospitals nationwide, helping hospital care teams ensure the care provided to patients is aligned with the latest research-based guidelines. Developed with the goal to save lives and improve recovery time, Get With The Guidelines - Stroke has impacted more than three million patients since 2003.

According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the No. 5 cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the United States. On average, someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke every 40 seconds, someone dies of a stroke every four minutes, and nearly 800,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.  

About Long Beach Memorial
Named among the top 12 hospitals in the Los Angeles Metro area by U.S. News and World Report, Long Beach Memorial has been providing compassionate care with the latest

state-of-the-art technology for more than 100 years. Long Beach Memorial is the region's first choice for comprehensive care in virtually every medical and surgical specialty.

Long Beach Memorial is at the forefront of patient care with the MemorialCare Todd Cancer Institute's 64,000 sq. ft. Todd Cancer Pavilion, which houses all outpatient cancer services under one roof. Also, the MemorialCare Heart & Vascular Institute recently opened a Hybrid Imaging Suite, which features advanced imaging technology, combining the diagnostics and capabilities of a catheterization laboratory with the surgical functions of an operating room.

Additional Centers of Excellence include the MemorialCare Rehabilitation Institute, MemorialCare Orthopedic Institute, MemorialCare Neuroscience Institute, Comprehensive Stroke Center, MemorialCare Joint Replacement Center, Emergency Department and Regional Trauma Center.

About Get With The Guidelines^®
Get With The Guidelines^® is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's hospital-based quality improvement program that provides hospitals with tools and resources to increase adherence to the latest research-based guidelines. Developed with the goal of saving lives and hastening recovery, Get With The Guidelines has touched the lives of more than 6 million patients since 2001. For more information, visit heart.org.

SOURCE Long Beach Memorial

Related Links

http://www.memorialcare.org