Holyoke Medical Center Honored for Excellence in Stroke Care

HOLYOKE — Holyoke Medical Center (HMC) has received three national and state awards for excellence in stroke care, including the American Stroke Assoc. Get with the Guidelines – Stroke Gold Plus award for the seventh consecutive year. Recognition for HMC’s stroke program includes:

• Get with the Guidelines – Stroke Gold Plus, Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus Quality Achievement Award, which recognizes HMC for meeting quality-achievement measures for the rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients. Quality measures include aggressive use of medications and risk-reduction therapies aimed at reducing death and disability and improving the lives of stroke patients. The Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus designation reflects HMC’s efficiency and ability to administer the drug IV tPA consistently to patients within 45 minutes of their arrival.

• Defect-free Care Award from the Paul Coverdell National Acute Stroke Program at the Mass. Department of Public Health, which recognized HMC for providing defect-free care for 85{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} or more of its stroke patients, utilizing all of the interventions for which each patient was eligible. Defect-free care is achieved when a patient receives the appropriate care based on clinical guidelines. HMC was ranked first in Massachusetts, out of 22 medium-volume hospitals, providing 99{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} defect-free care.

• Coverdell NIH Stroke Scale Rate of 100 Percent Award from the Paul Coverdell National Acute Stroke Program at the Massachusetts DPH, which recognizes HMC as a hospital which performed neurological assessments on 100{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} of its stroke patients from January 2014 to December 2014. The NIH Stroke Scale is an evidence-based tool used to provide a quantitative measure of stroke-related neurologic deficit.

“In responding to a stroke, time matters; that’s why we have invested in a program that allows residents to receive exceptional stroke care close to home,” said Spiros Hatiras, president and CEO of Holyoke Medical Center and Valley Health Systems Inc. “Our team, led by Angela Smith, RN, has established a comprehensive program and continually focuses on improving patient outcomes. They are to be commended for their tremendous efforts.”

Added Smith, HMC’s stroke clinical manager, “our stroke team members at HMC are highly trained and focus on providing rapid efficient care to each and every stroke patient. The awards prove that this patient-centered care is our priority every day.”

Stroke is now the fifth-leading cause of death in the U.S. (only a few years ago it was third), but still remains the leading cause of adult disability. Every second counts when it comes to knowing if someone is having a stroke.