CANANDAIGUA – UR Medicine Thompson Health announces that its F.F. Thompson Hospital has once again received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award.
Thompson is a New York State Department of Health-designated Stroke Center and this award recognizes its commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines following the latest scientific evidence. In order to earn the award, the hospital had to meet specific quality achievement measures relating to a number of things including the proper use of medications and other treatments, the education provided prior to discharge and other care-transition interventions.
“Thompson 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,” said Stroke Coordinator Sarah Gallagher. “The tools and resources provided help us track and measure our success in meeting evidence-based clinical guidelines developed to improve patient outcomes.”
Thompson additionally received the Association’s Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll™ Award. To qualify for this recognition, hospitals must – for at least 12 months – meet quality measures developed with more than 90 percent of compliance for the “Overall Diabetes Cardiovascular Initiative Composite Score.”
“We are pleased to recognize F.F. Thompson Hospital for their commitment to stroke care,” said Lee H. Schwamm, M.D., national chairperson of the Quality Oversight Committee and executive vice chair of Neurology as well as the director of Acute Stroke Services at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “Research has shown that hospitals adhering to clinical measures through the Get With The Guidelines quality improvement initiative can often see fewer readmissions and lower mortality rates.”
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.