Baystate Franklin Medical Center Recognized for Stroke Care

GREENFIELD — Baystate Franklin Medical Center received the American Heart Assoc./American Stroke Assoc. Get with the Guidelines – Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award with Target: Stroke Honor Roll. The award recognizes the hospital’s commitment to providing the most appropriate stroke treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence. This is Baystate Franklin’s third consecutive year earning a Gold Plus rating.

Hospitals must achieve 85{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} or higher adherence to all Get with the Guidelines – Stroke achievement indicators for two or more consecutive 12-month periods and achieve 75{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} 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, 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. Baystate Franklin 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, so time is of the essence. This award recognizes our commitment at BFMC to delivering advanced stroke treatments to patients quickly and safely,” said Dr. Thomas Higgins, interim president and chief medical officer at Baystate Franklin Medical Center. “It takes a big, multi-disciplinary team effort to ensure each stroke patient gets top-decile care. I am proud of every member of the stroke team for continuing to strive for excellence in the acute treatment of stroke patients.”

“My wife Vanna is living proof of what a stroke care team can do,” said Terry Ruggles of Greenfield, whose wife suffered a stroke on Jan. 16 and fully recovered. “With the help of MedCare Ambulance, we were able to get to the Emergency Department in time for Vanna to qualify for tPA infusion. From slurred speech, crooked smile, no left-side movement, vision problems at 8:45 p.m., to full recovery just about an hour later, she was a true success story.”

According to the American Heart Assoc./American Stroke Assoc., stroke is the fifth-leading cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the U.S. 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.