The Medical Center at Bowling Green Receives Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award
The Medical Center at Bowling Green, flagship hospital of Med Center Health, has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award. The award recognizes the hospital’s commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.
The Medical Center at Bowling Green earned the award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients. 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, get a follow-up visit scheduled, as well as other care transition interventions.
“The stroke care team at The Medical Center at Bowling Green is dedicated to constantly improving the quality of care for our patients,” said Jean Cherry, Executive Vice President of Med Center Health. “For every patient who comes to The Medical Center with a stroke, our team goes above and beyond to positively impact their outcome. We are proud to be recognized by the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association, but our greatest achievement is in saving lives and preserving the quality of life for our patients.”
The Medical Center at Bowling Green additionally received the association’s Target: Stroke℠ Elite 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 pleased to recognize The Medical Center at Bowling Green for their commitment to stroke care,” said Eric E. Smith, M.D., national chairman of the Get With The Guidelines Steering Committee and an associate professor of neurology at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. “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.
