Stony Brook University Hospital received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With the Guidelines® Target: Stroke Advanced Therapy Honor Roll and Stony Brook Southampton Hospital received the Get With The Guidelines® – Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award. These awards recognize Stony Brook Medicine’s commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.
Stony Brook Southampton Hospital and Stony Brook University Hospital each earned an award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients at a set level for a designated period. These measures include evaluation of the proper use of medications and other stroke treatments aligned with the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. Before discharge, patients should also receive education on managing their health, schedule a follow-up visit, as well as other care transition interventions.
“Stony Brook Medicine is dedicated to delivering the best care to our patients by implementing the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke initiative,” said Kristie Golden, PhD, LMHC, CRC, Associate Director of Operations, Neurosciences, Stony Brook University Hospital Administration Executive Staff. “The tools and resources provided help us monitor and measure our success utilizing the most up-to-date clinical guidelines developed to improve patient health outcomes.”
In April 2019, Stony Brook Medicine launched Long Island’s first Mobile Stroke Unit Program designed to provide specialized, life-saving care to people within the critical moments of stroke before they even get to the hospital. This revolutionary pre-hospital process allows for time-sensitive stroke therapies to be administered earlier and allows for the transport of stroke patients directly to the most appropriate hospital for the level of care they require, the first time.
Stony Brook Southampton Hospital additionally received the Association’s Target: StrokeSM Honor Roll/Target: StrokeSM award. To qualify for this recognition, 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.
“We are dedicated to improving the quality of care for our stroke patients by implementing the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke initiative,” said Fredric I. Weinbaum, MD, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Operating Officer, Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. “The tools and resources provided help us track and measure our success in meeting evidenced-based clinical guidelines developed to improve patient outcomes.”
Stony Brook Southampton Hospital has also met specific scientific guidelines as a Primary Stroke Center or as a Comprehensive Stroke Center, featuring a comprehensive system for rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients admitted to the emergency department.
“We are pleased to recognize Stony Brook Southampton Hospital for their commitment to stroke care,” said Lee H. Schwamm, MD, national chairperson of the Quality Oversight Committee and Executive Vice Chair of Neurology, Director of Acute Stroke Services, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. “Research has shown that hospitals adhering to clinical measures through the Get With The Guidelines quality improvement initiative can often see fewer readmissions and lower mortality rates.”
According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the No. 5 cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the United States. On average, someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke every 40 seconds and nearly 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.
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