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The Medical Center at Bowling Green receives Get With The Guidelines Stroke Gold Plus and Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus Quality Achievement Awards

The Medical Center at Bowling Green has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines® Stroke Gold Plus Achievement Award as well as the Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus Quality Award. These awards recognize the hospital’s commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.

The Medical Center at Bowling Green earned the Stroke Gold Plus Award by exceeding benchmark performance on specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients for 24 consecutive months. These measures include evaluation of the proper use of stroke 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, get a follow-up visit scheduled, as well as other care transition interventions.

The Medical Center at Bowling Green also received the association’s Target: StrokeSM Honor Roll Elite Plus award. To qualify for this recognition, hospitals must meet or exceed quality measures over the same 24 consecutive months that were 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 honored to be recognized for the hard work and dedication of our stroke care team,” said Connie Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer of Med Center Health. “Our commitment to the best in patient care has brought us Get With The Guidelines Awards several years in a row, and we are constantly pushing to improve patient outcomes even more. To achieve both the Gold Plus and Honor Roll Elite Plus Awards this year, we exceeded targets set by the American Heart and Stroke Associations over a 2-year period. This is an incredible accomplishment and our patients and their families are the ultimate benefactor of these efforts.”

“We are pleased to recognize The Medical Center at Bowling Green for their commitment to stroke care,” said Lee H. Schwamm, M.D., 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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