St. Mary's Medical Center Earns Award in Stroke Care
St. Mary’s Medical Center has earned the Get With The Guidelines®–Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award from the American Heart Association. The award recognizes St. Mary’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care by ensuring that stroke patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted guidelines.
The Get With The Guidelines–Stroke program helps St. Mary’s staff develop and implement acute and secondary prevention guideline processes to improve patient care and outcomes. The program ensures the care provided to stroke patients is aligned with the most current, science-based guidelines. The quick and efficient use of guideline procedures can improve the quality of care for stroke patients and may reduce disability and save lives. To earn the award, hospitals must show they are adhering to the guidelines for a designated period of time.
“St. Mary’s is dedicated to providing quality, compassionate care,” says Angie Hawkins, BSN, RN, CCRN, CNRN, navigator for the Stroke Center at St. Mary’s. “This award shows we are doing what evidence-based research shows is best for stroke patients. The guidelines are aimed at reducing death and disability and improving the lives of stroke patients.”
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.