The American Heart Association / American Stroke Association honored Emerson Hospital recently for its excellence in treating stroke patients. Emerson earned the Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award and was named to the Target: Stroke Honor Roll. These awards recognize Emerson’s commitment to providing the most appropriate stroke treatment to patients according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.
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.
These quality measures are designed to help hospital teams follow the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients.
“Emerson continues to strive for excellence in the treatment of all of our stroke patients,” said Christine Schuster, President and CEO of Emerson Hospital. “We are pleased to be honored by the American Heart Association / American Stroke Association for our work in reducing the debilitating effects of stroke. Every patient that comes to Emerson with stroke symptoms receives the highest quality care possible based on the latest guidelines that our clinical teams are continually trained on.”
“The American Heart Association and American Stroke Association are proud to recognize Emerson Hospital for its commitment to excellence in stroke care,” said Paul Heidenreich, M.D., M.S., national chairman of the Get With The Guidelines Steering Committee and Professor of Medicine at Stanford University. “Research has shown there are benefits to patients who are treated at hospitals that have adopted the Get With The Guidelines program.” Get With The Guidelines®-S helps hospital care teams ensure the care provided to patients is aligned with the latest guidelines according to the AHA / ASA. Developed with the goal to save lives and improve recovery time, Get With The Guidelines®-S has impacted more than 3 million patients since 2003.
According to the AHA / ASA, stroke is the fifth leading 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.
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Emerson Hospital is a multi-site health system headquartered in Concord, Mass., with additional facilities in Sudbury, Groton and Westford, and urgent care centers in Hudson and Littleton. The 179-bed hospital provides advanced medical services to more than 300,000 individuals in 25 towns. To learn more, visit www.emersonhospital.org.
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 six million patients since 2001. For more information, visit heart.org.
