NUMC RECEIVES AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION’S GET WITH THE GUIDELINES STROKE GOLD PLUS QUALITY ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 6, 2013
PRESS CONTACT:
Shelley Lotenberg
shelley@numc.edu
516-572-6055
NUMC Receives American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award
Award demonstrates NUMC’s commitment to quality care for stroke patients
EAST MEADOW, NY…… — Arthur A. Gianelli, President/CEO of the NuHealth System proudly announces that the Nassau University Medical Center has received the Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award from the American Heart Association. The award recognizes NUMC’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care by ensuring that stroke patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted guidelines. This marks the third year that NUMC has been recognized with the Gold Plus quality achievement award.
Get With The Guidelines-Stroke helps NUMC’s staff develop and implement acute and secondary prevention guideline processes to improve patient care and outcomes. The program provides hospitals with a web-based patient management tool, best practice discharge protocols and standing orders, along with a robust registry and real-time benchmarking capabilities to track performance. The quick and efficient use of guideline procedures can improve the quality of care for stroke patients and may reduce disability and save lives.
“Recent studies show that patients treated in hospitals participating in the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke program receive a higher quality of care and may experience better outcomes,” 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, Mass. “The NUMC team is to be commended for their commitment to improving the care of their patients.”
Following Get With The Guidelines-Stroke treatment guidelines, patients are started on aggressive risk-reduction therapies including the use of medications such as tPA, antithrombotics and anticoagulation therapy, along with cholesterol reducing drugs and smoking cessation counseling. These are all aimed at reducing death and disability and improving the lives of stroke patients. Hospitals must adhere to these measures at a set level for a designated period of time to be eligible for the achievement awards.
“NUMC is dedicated to making our care for stroke patients among the best in the country. The American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke program helps us to accomplish this goal,” said Arthur A. Gianelli, President/CEO. “This recognition demonstrates that we are on the right track and we’re very proud of our team.”
According to Steven J. Walerstein, MD, FACP, executive vice president for medical affairs and medical director at the NuHealth System, “The time is right for NUMC 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.” 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.
About Get With The Guidelines
Get With The Guidelines® is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program that empowers healthcare teams to save lives and reduce healthcare costs by helping hospitals follow evidence-based guidelines and recommendations. For more information, visit heart.org/quality
ABOUT NUHEALTH
NuHealth is a Long Island health care organization delivering essential medical care and disease and lifestyle management to everyone at every stage of life. Also known as Nassau Health Care Corporation, NuHealth is a public benefit corporation managing the operations of Nassau Medical Center, A. Holly Patterson Extended Care and a network of Family Health Centers that bring primary and specialty care out into the community. By emphasizing wellness, cultural sensitivity and collaborative efforts with the North Shore-LIJ Health System, NuHealth is working to make good care more affordable and easier to access.
For more information about NuHealth or its Centers of Care, visit www.nuhealth.net.