Long Beach Memorial Stroke Program Receives Get With The Guidelines®- Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award

According to the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association, 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. A stroke strikes fast, that’s why it is important to treat a stroke quickly and increase the chances of survival. Long Beach Memorial’s leading Stroke Program has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines® - Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award. The award recognizes Long Beach Memorial’s commitment and success in implementing excellent patient and family centered care for stroke patients, according to evidence-based guidelines.

Long Beach Memorial received the award after achieving an 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines® - Stroke Quality Achievement indicators for two or more consecutive 12-month intervals. Long Beach Memorial also achieved 75 percent or higher compliance with 6 of 10 Get With the Guidelines® - Stroke Quality Measures which are reporting initiatives to measure quality of care. These measures include aggressive use of medications and innovative treatment options, such as anticoagulation therapy, cholesterol reducing drugs and smoking cessation, all aimed at reducing death and disability and improving the lives of stroke patients.

“With a stroke, time lost is brain lost, and the Get With The Guidelines® - Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award demonstrates Long Beach Memorial’s commitment to being one of the top hospitals in the country for providing aggressive, proven stroke care,” says Angie West, RN, Stroke Program Director, Long Beach Memorial. “We will continue with our focus on providing care that has been shown in the scientific literature to quickly and efficiently treat stroke patients with evidence-based protocols.”

Long Beach Memorial provides customized patient education materials to stroke patients at the point of discharge, based on their individual risk profiles. 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. In addition, the American Heart Association’s Patient Management Tool™ (PMT), provides an interactive system with real-time data validation and guidelines compliance. PMT gives Long Beach Memorial the ability to measure their individual compliance with evidence-based standards and compare and benchmark its performance with other hospitals at the point of care.

“Long Beach Memorial is to be commended for its commitment to implementing standards of care and protocols for treating stroke patients,” said Lee H. Schwamm, M.D. chair of the Get With The Guidelines® National Steering Committee and director of the TeleStroke and 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.”

About Get With The Guidelines®:
Get With The Guidelines® is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program that empowers healthcare teams to save lives and reduce healthcare costs by helping hospitals follow evidence-based guidelines and recommendations. For more information, visit heart.org/quality.

About Long Beach Memorial:
Long Beach Memorial is a part of the MemorialCare Health System, a nationally recognized not-for-profit integrated delivery system with top ratings for quality and safety. Long Beach Memorial has been providing compassionate care with the latest state-of-the-art technology for more than 100 years and is the region's first choice for comprehensive care in virtually every medical and surgical specialty. Centers of excellence include the MemorialCare Heart and Vascular Institute, the MemorialCare Todd Cancer Institute, the MemorialCare Rehabilitation Institute, the MemorialCare Orthopedic Institute, the MemorialCare Neuroscience Institute and the Emergency Department and Trauma Center.