Baystate Wing Hospital Receives Award for Excellence in Stroke Care
PALMER — Baystate Wing Hospital has received the American Heart Assoc./American Stroke Assoc. Get with the Guidelines – Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award. The award recognizes the hospital’s commitment and success in ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.
To receive the Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award, 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.
These quality measures are designed to help hospital teams provide the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. They focus on appropriate use of guideline-based care for stroke patients, including aggressive use of medications such as clot-busting and anti-clotting drugs, blood thinners, and cholesterol-reducing drugs; preventive action for deep-vein thrombosis; and smoking cessation counseling. 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.
“Since a stroke patient may lose 1.9 billion neurons each minute that stroke treatment is delayed, time to treatment is of the utmost importance,” said Dr. David Maguire, chief medical officer for Baystate Wing Hospital. “This award from the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association recognizes the success of our ongoing commitment to delivering advanced stroke treatment to our patients quickly and safely. Our staff works closely with area EMS providers to initiate a stroke alert when they recognize a patient with stroke symptoms in the field. Once they initiate that stroke alert, our team assembles to begin the stroke assessment and treatment the moment a patient arrives in our ER. This award also demonstrates the success of the team’s hard work.”