Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville receives top honor for stroke care
May 4, 2015 | Jacksonville, FL
Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award along with the Target: StrokeSM Honor Roll. The award recognizes the hospital’s commitment and success in ensuring that 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 24 or more consecutive months and achieved 75 percent or higher compliance with five of eight Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality measures.
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 clot-buster tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke. If given intravenously in the first three hours after the start of stroke symptoms, tPA has been shown to significantly reduce the effects of stroke and lessen the chance of permanent disability. Baptist Jacksonville earned the award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients at a set level for a designated period.
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.
“This recognition underscores the dedication, clinical skill and commitment of our care givers to providing the best possible stroke care for our community,” said Michael Mayo, hospital president for Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville.
“These awards from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association reflect our teamwork and our multidisciplinary efforts to ensure that when a patient comes through our doors with signs and symptoms of stroke, the wheels are set in motion to expedite care,” added Mindy S. Grall, PhD, ARNP, director of the Baptist Health Stroke and Cerebrovascular Program.
The Stroke & Cerebrovascular Center at Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville leads the way in the northeast region for new minimally invasive treatment of brain aneurysms and strokes.
As the only center in the region with all new tools available for brain aneurysm treatment, the center is currently involved in about a dozen aneurysm and stroke trials. Baptist has been the first internationally to enroll patients in trials and has played a leadership role in providing advanced training for visiting physicians.
“The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association stroke awards represents a nice recognition of the level of stroke care and commitment offered by our team at Baptist,” said neurovascular surgeon Ricardo Hanel, MD, PhD, director along with neurovascular surgeon Eric Sauvageau, MD, of the Stroke & Cerebrovascular Center at Baptist Jacksonville.
“When it comes to a stroke, time lost is brain lost, and this award demonstrates our commitment to ensuring patients receive care based on nationally-respected clinical guidelines,” Dr. Sauvageau added.
Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville has also met specific scientific guidelines as a Comprehensive Stroke Center by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, featuring a comprehensive system for rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients admitted to the emergency department.
“We are pleased to recognize Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville for their commitment to stroke care,” said Deepak L. Bhatt, M.D., M.P.H., national chairman of the Get With The Guidelines steering committee and Executive Director of Interventional Cardiovascular Programs at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “Studies have shown that hospitals that consistently follow Get With The Guidelines quality improvement measures can reduce length of stay and 30-day readmission rates and reduce disparities in care.”
According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the number five cause of death and a leading cause of adult 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.