MUNSTER–When it comes to high quality timely stroke care, three Community Healthcare System hospitals have been recognized for top consistent performance. The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association (AHA/ASA) has presented the hospitals of Community Healthcare System with Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Quality Achievement Awards. Community Hospital, St. Catherine Hospital and St. Mary Medical Center have achieved Gold Plus status-the highest level possible.
This achievement represents quality care measures met for at least 24 consecutive months or more. It also demonstrates the teams’ commitment to ensuring that stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized evidence-based guidelines.
“We know from research that when a stroke occurs, millions of brain cells die every minute and hence, literally, every minute counts,” said Neuroendovascular Neurologist Aamir Badruddin, medical director of the comprehensive stroke program at Community Hospital and on staff at St. Catherine Hospital and St. Mary Medical Center.
Stroke is the number five cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the United States, according to the AHA/ASA. About 85 percent of all strokes are caused by an obstruction within a vessel supplying blood to the brain. A loss of oxygen and nutrients causes brain cells to die. Physical disabilities as well as difficulty with thinking and speaking may result from damage to the brain. Research shows that timely intervention to remove the blockage is the most effective treatment.
Large vessel strokes make up about 20 percent of the stroke cases in Northwest Indiana and surrounding communities. Technology to successfully treat these types of strokes has become the standard of treatment only within the past few years.
“Today, we are using technology that enables us to quickly and efficiently get to the blockage in the brain and remove a clot,” Badruddin said. “Combined with the TeleStroke network within our own healthcare system, we are rising to the challenge and ensuring that people served by our hospitals receive topnotch quality consistent care. Therefore, our team of stroke experts are available at all Community Healthcare System locations to ensure solidity and advanced care in the utmost timely manner.”
The Get With The Guidelines program is designed to help hospital teams provide the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. The quality measures focus on appropriate use of guideline-based care for stroke patients, including aggressive use of medications such as clot-busting and anti-clotting drugs, blood thinners and cholesterol-reducing drugs, preventive action for deep vein thrombosis and smoking cessation counseling.
Get With The Guidelines-Stroke uses the “teachable moment,” the time soon after a patient has had a stroke, when they are most likely to listen to and follow their healthcare professionals’ guidance. 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.
Community Healthcare System hospitals also received several Target: Stroke℠ honor roll distinctions: Target: Stroke Elite, Target: Stroke Advanced Therapy and Target: Type 2 Diabetes. These awards further demonstrate complex, timely and patient-centered care.
Target Stroke Honor Roll levels acknowledge quality care in reference to door-to-needle times. 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 (known as ‘door-to-needle’ time) with the clot-buster tissue plasminogen activator or tPA. A thrombolytic or clot-busting agent, tPA is the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the urgent treatment of ischemic stroke. If given intravenously in the first three hours after the start of stroke symptoms, tPA has been shown to significantly reverse the effects of stroke and reduce permanent disability.
“Each of our stroke centers is equipped to provide treatment with thrombolytics, the clot-busting drug for stroke, for all eligible patients,” said Jill Conner, MSN, APRN, administrative director of Neuroscience, Cerebrovascular Services and Structural Heart, Community Healthcare System. “By using a standardized evidence-based protocol no matter if the patient is brought to our Comprehensive Stroke Center at Community Hospital in Munster or one of our Primary Stroke Centers at St. Catherine Hospital in East Chicago or St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart, we are able to deliver quality consistent care in a most timely fashion.”
For more information about stroke care at the hospitals of Community Healthcare System, visit COMHS.org/stroke.
