Awards for St. Anthony Hospital's Stroke Care

*The American Heart Association and American Stroke Association recognize this hospital for achieving 85% or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines "Stroke Performance Achievement indicators for consecutive 12 month intervals and 75% or higher compliance with 6 of 10 Get With The Guidelines" Stroke Quality Measures to improve quality of patient care and outcomes in addition to achieving IV rt-PA door to needle times ≤ 60 minutes in 50% or more of applicable acute ischemic stroke patients (minimum of 6) during one calendar quarter.

Get With The Guidelines Gold Plus Performance Achievement Award
In St. Anthony Hospital's continuing effort to improve outcomes for stroke patients, we are proud to have received the 2012 American Heart Association / American Stroke Association's Get With The Guidelines Gold Plus Performance Achievement Award. Our participation in Get With The Guidelines demonstrates our commitment to quality care. We are proud to be a part of the American Heart Association's efforts to turn guidelines into lifelines. The award recognizes St.Anthony Central's commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of stroke care by ensuring that stroke patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted standards and recommendations.

Hospitals who have received the Get With The Guidelines Gold Plus Performance Achievement Award have reached an aggressive goal of treating stroke patients with 85% or higher compliance to core standard levels of care as outlined by the American Heart Association / American Stroke Association for twenty four consecutive months. 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. Learn more about the American Heart Association / American Stroke Association's GWTG quality improvement program.

American Stroke Association's Target: Stroke program
In addition to the Gold Plus Performance Achievement, St. Anthony Hospital has been be awarded an ‘Honor Roll Site' status for the American Stroke Association's Target: Stroke program. Target: Stroke is a national quality improvement campaign created by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association to improve outcomes for ischemic stroke patients by helping hospitals achieve door-to-needle (DTN) times of 60 minutes or less.

According to the American Stroke Association website, "one minute of brain ischemia can kill two million nerve cells and 14 billion synapses. That means the more time that elapses before intravenous thrombolysis (clot-busting medicine), the slimmer the odds of a good outcome. The upside is a great opportunity to improve outcomes simply by providing the right treatment, right away.

Despite evidence that shorter DTN times can improve functional outcomes, treatment across the country is often delayed due to lags in assessment and/or rt-PA administration. Through Target: Stroke, hospital stroke teams can work towards eliminating delays and reducing long-term disability in stroke patients.

Target: Stroke advocates the adoption of 10 best practice strategies for reducing DTN times for IV rt-PA in acute ischemic stroke. St.Anthony Hospital has had these best practices in place for many years. The recommend practices are: Advance Hospital Notification by EMS, Rapid Triage Protocol and Stroke Team Notification, Single Call Activation System, Use of a Stroke Toolkit, Rapid Acquisition and Interpretation of Brain Imaging, Rapid Laboratory Testing (including point-of-care testing if indicated),Rapid Access to Intravenous rt-PA, Team-Based Approach, and Prompt Data Feedback.

Another important factor in improving stroke care for our community is public awareness and responsiveness at the first signs of stroke. That's why it's imperative that people know their risk and call 9-1-1 at the first sign of a stroke.