Newport News, Va. – Riverside Regional Medical Center 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 to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.
Riverside 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 measures include evaluation of the proper use of medications and other stroke treatments aligned with the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. Before discharge, patients should also receive education on managing their health, get a follow-up visit scheduled, as well as other care transition interventions.
“Riverside is dedicated to improving the quality of care for our stroke patients by implementing the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke initiative among other things,” said Dr. Pankajavalli Ramakrishnan, a neurointerventional specialist at Riverside. “We routinely track and measure our success in meeting evidenced-based clinical guidelines developed to improve patient outcomes. The fact that we can achieve and sustain recognitions like this is a testament to the work of our entire team over many years.”
Riverside Regional Medical Center additionally received the association’s Target: StrokeSM Elite Plus award. To qualify for this recognition, 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.
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 and nearly 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.
An Ongoing Commitment to Education and Improvement
This recognition comes as Riverside prepares to host its 10th Annual Stroke Symposium on Friday, June 8, 2018 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Newport News Marriott at City Center, 740 Town Center Drive, Newport News, Virginia 23606. The symposium will feature practical, evidence-based knowledge for early stroke identification, evaluation, treatment, transport, and management. Through lectures, interactive sessions, and open discussions, this conference will explore the critical issues surrounding the assessment and management of stroke patients.
For more information on Riverside’s Stroke Symposium, visit riversideonline.com/symposium.