Butler Memorial Hospital Receives Get With the Guidelines-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement with Target: Stroke Honor Roll.

Butler Memorial Hospital Receives Get With the Guidelines-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement with Target: Stroke Honor Roll.

American Heart Association Award recognizes Butler Health System’s commitment to quality stroke care

Butler Memorial Hospital has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines^®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award. The award recognizes the hospital’s commitment and success in ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.

To receive the Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award, hospitals must achieve 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke achievement indicators for two or more consecutive 12-month periods and achieved 75 percent or higher compliance with five of eight Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality measures. This is the fourth time that Butler Memorial Hospital has received this designation.

To qualify for the Target: Stroke Honor Roll, hospitals must meet quality measures developed to reduce the time between the patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with the drug tPA. Over the last ten years, BHS has reduced its “door to needle” time by an average of 38 minutes.

These quality measures are 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.

“Early recognition and treatment of a stroke is a key factor in recovering from a stroke, says Dr. Munir Elawar, Neurology Medical Director. Butler Memorial Hospital can begin treatment immediately in the Emergency Room by administering tPA, a medication that dissolves clots.”

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, someone dies of a stroke every four minutes, and nearly 800,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.

“Butler Memorial Hospital is working toward being certified as a Primary Stroke Center,” says Melisse Maser, Neurology Service Clinical Corodinator “Achieving the Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award multiple times shows the importance of this project and our commitment to the community.”

About Get With The Guidelines^®

Get With The Guidelines^® is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program that provides hospitals with tools and resources to increase adherence to the latest research-based guidelines. Developed with the goal of saving lives and hastening recovery, Get With The Guidelines has touched the lives of more than 6 million patients since 2001. For more information, visit heart.org.