Award demonstrates St. Vincent Charity Medical Center’s
commitment to quality care for stroke patients

CLEVELAND – JANUARY 20, 2011 – St. Vincent Charity Medical Center has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines® Stroke Silver Plus Performance Achievement Award.  The award recognizes St. Vincent Charity Medical Center’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.
      To receive the Get With The Guidelines Stroke Silver Plus Performance Achievement Award, St. Vincent Charity Medical Center achieved at least 12 consecutive months of 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines Stroke Performance Achievement indicators and achieved at least 75 percent or higher compliance with six of 10 Get With The Guidelines Stroke Quality Measures during that same period of time, which are reporting initiatives to measure quality of care.
      These measures include aggressive use of medications, such as tPA, antithrombotics, anticoagulation therapy, DVT 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 Silver Plus Performance Achievement Award demonstrates that our staff is committed to providing care that has been shown in the scientific literature to quickly and efficiently treat stroke patients with evidence-based protocols,” said Dr. Giesele Robinson Greene, chief medical officer.
      “St. Vincent Charity Medical Center 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.”
      Get With The Guidelines Stroke uses the “teachable moment,” the time soon after a patient has had a stroke, when they are most likely to listen to and follow their healthcare professionals’ guidance. Studies demonstrate that patients who are taught how to manage their risk factors while still in the hospital reduce their risk of a second heart attack or stroke. Through Get With The Guidelines Stroke, customized patient education materials are made available at the point of discharge, based on patients’ individual risk profiles. The take-away materials are written in an easy-to-understand format and are available in English and Spanish. In addition, the Get With The Guidelines Patient Management Tool provides access to up-to-date cardiovascular and stroke science at the point of care.
      “The time is right for St. Vincent Charity Medical Center 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 Dr. Greene.
       According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States and a leading cause of serious, long-term disability.  On average, someone suffers a stroke every 45 seconds; someone dies of a stroke every three minutes; and 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.

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About St. Vincent Charity Medical Center

St. Vincent Charity Medical Center is Cleveland’s faith-based, high-quality healthcare provider. Our distinguished doctors and caregivers are devoted to treating every patient with clinical excellence and compassionate care. St. Vincent Charity Medical Center is home to the renowned Spine and Orthopedic Institute and the Center for Bariatric Surgery. Owned by the Sisters of Charity Health System, St. Vincent Charity Medical Center has been caring for Clevelanders since 1865. For more information, visit www.stvincentcharity.com.

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.