UK HealthCare

UK Stroke Program Earns AHA/ASA Gold Plus Award

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 18, 2011) — The UK HealthCare Kentucky Neuroscience Institute Stroke Program has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s "Get With The Guidelines" Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award. The award recognizes UK HealthCare's commitment and success in implementing excellent, evicence-based care for stroke patients.

To receive the award, a hospital must achieve 85 percent or higher adherence to all "Get With The Guidelines" stroke quality achievement indicators for two or more consecutive 12-month intervals and achieve 75 percent or higher compliance with at least six of 10 stroke quality measures. These measures include aggressive use of medications, such as tPA, antithrombotics, anticoagulation therapy, DVT prophylaxis, cholesterol-reducing drugs and smoking cessation, all aimed at reducing death and disability and improving the lives of stroke patients.

“With a stroke, time lost is brain lost, and the 'Get With The Guidelines' Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award demonstrates our commitment to being one of the top healthcare providers in the country for providing aggressive, proven stroke care,” said Dr. Michael R. Dobbs, Medical Director of Stroke Care and Director of the UK Stroke Care Affiliate Network. “We will continue to focus on providing care that has been shown in the scientific literature to quickly and efficiently treat stroke patients with evidence-based protocols.”

“UK HealthCare and the UK Stroke Program are to be commended for a commitment to implementing standards of care and protocols for treating stroke patients,” said Dr. Lee H. Schwamm, chair of the "Get With The Guidelines" national steering committee. “The full implementation of acute care and secondary prevention recommendations and guidelines is a critical step in saving the lives and improving outcomes of stroke patients.”

"Get With The Guidelines" emphasizes the “teachable moment” — the time soon after a stroke, when patients are most receptive to guidance from health care professionals. Studies demonstrate that patients who are taught how to manage their risk factors while still in the hospital reduce their risk of a second heart attack or stroke.

Through "Get With The Guidelines", customized patient education materials are made available at the point of discharge, based on patients’ individual risk profiles. The take-away materials are written in an easy-to-understand format and are available in English and Spanish. In addition, the "Get With The Guidelines" patient management tool gives healthcare providers access to up-to-date cardiovascular and stroke science at the point of care.

According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is one of the leading causes of death and serious, long-term disability in the United States. On average, someone suffers a stroke every 40 seconds; someone dies of a stroke every four minutes; and 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year. For more information, visit http://heart.org/quality. MEDIA CONTACT: Allison Elliott, allison.elliott@uky.edu