5/6/2009

Jewish Hospital and Sts. Mary & Elizabeth Hospital receive Highest Honor from American Stroke Assoc.

LOUISVILLE, KY – Jewish Hospital and Sts. Mary & Elizabeth Hospital have both received the American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines – Stroke (GWTG–Stroke) Gold Performance Achievement Award, their highest honor.  The award recognizes both hospitals’ 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.

As the region’s first comprehensive stroke center, Jewish Hospital has been recognized before as one of the top 50 hospitals in America in neurology and neurosurgery by U.S.News & World Report and both facilities were recognized by the American Stroke Association as a Silver Performance Achievement winner in 2008.  This year, both Jewish Hospital and Sts. Mary & Elizabeth Hospital were eligible for the Gold award since they reached the requirements for 24 consecutive months.

“Jewish Hospital has developed a comprehensive system to rapidly diagnose, triage and treat stroke patients who enter our facility through the emergency department,” said Marty Bonick, president/CEO of Jewish Hospital.  “Our state of the art equipment, including a new portable CT scanner which can take images at the patient bedside and our expert medical staff ensure that patients are given the very best in treatment and care.”

To receive the Gold GWTG-Stroke Gold Performance Achievement Award, Jewish Hospital and Sts. Mary & Elizabeth Hospital consistently complied for at least two years with the requirements in the GWTG–Stroke program. These include aggressive use of medications like tPA, antithrombotics, anticoagulation therapy, DVT prophylaxis, cholesterol reducing drugs, and smoking cessation. This twenty-four-month evaluation period is part of an ongoing self-evaluation by the hospital to continually reach the 85 percent compliance level for every measure needed to sustain this award.

“With a stroke, time saved is brain saved and we look for ways to educate our community on stroke prevention and symptoms, so that if they are ever affected, they will be able to respond quickly and have the best chance to survive and return to daily activities,” said Tom Gessel, president/CEO Sts. Mary & Elizabeth Hospital.

“The American Stroke Association commends Jewish Hospital and Sts. Mary & Elizabeth Hospital for their success in implementing standards of care and protocols,” said Lee H. Schwamm, M.D., national Get With The Guidelines Steering Committee Member and director of the acute stroke services at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “The full implementation of acute care and secondary prevention recommendations and guidelines is a critical step in saving the lives and improving outcomes of stroke patients.”

GWTG–Stroke uses the “teachable moment,” the time soon after a patient has had a stroke, when they are most likely to listen to and follow their healthcare professionals’ guidance. Studies demonstrate that patients who are taught how to manage their risk factors while still in the hospital reduce their risk of a second heart attack or stroke. Through GWTG–Stroke, customized patient education materials are made available at the point of discharge, based on patients’ individual risk profiles. The take-away materials are written in an easy-to-understand format and are available in English and Spanish. In addition, the GWTG Patient Management Tool provides access to up-to-date cardiovascular and stroke science at the point of care.

“The time is right for our hospitals to be focused on improving the quality of stroke care by implementing GWTG–Stroke. Due to increasing stroke incidence and a large aging population, the number of acute ischemic stroke patients eligible for treatment is expected to grow over the next decade,” said James Gebel, M.D., Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s HealthCare neurologist.

According to the American Stroke Association, each year approximately 700,000 people suffer a stroke — 500,000 are first attacks and 200,000 are recurrent. Of stroke survivors, 21 percent of men and 24 percent of women die within a year, and for those aged 65 and older, the percentage is even higher. 

JHSMH:
Jewish Hospital & St. Mary's HealthCare (JHSMH) is a regional health network that includes more than 70 health care facilities and 1,900 patients beds in Kentucky and southern Indiana.  The merger of Jewish Hospital HealthCare Services and CARITAS Health Services to form JHSMH combines the strength and honors the heritages of the two organizations to provide a complete array of health care services to this region and beyond, including: hospitals, outpatient care, cancer care, occupational health, psychiatric care and rehab medicine.  JHSMH provides home health care to families in 41 Kentucky and southern Indiana counties and employs a network of physician practices that provide both primary and specialty medical care.  The organization employs more than 8,100 people and more than 100 physicians.

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