6/22/2017
PITTSBURGH, June 22, 2017 – UPMC hospitals have been recognized for excellence in stroke care by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines® program, which acknowledges the hospitals’ commitment to providing the most appropriate stroke treatment.
To earn the Get With The Guidelines Gold Plus and Silver Plus Awards, UPMC hospitals demonstrated at least 85 percent adherence to all achievement measures, and 75 percent or higher compliance with the Get With the Guidelines-Stroke Quality measures in the past 24 months and 12 months respectively. The achievement measures are based on nationally recognized, research-based guidelines established from the latest scientific evidence.
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, someone dies of a stroke every four minutes, and nearly 800,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.
“Every minute counts when it comes to treating stroke patients” said Tudor Jovin, M.D., director, UPMC Stroke Institute, and professor of neurology and neurosurgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. “Our stroke program has been a leader in the region and has shown outstanding improvements in outcomes across the board. These awards reaffirm our commitment to providing the best possible care for our stroke patients.”
Get With the Guidelines Gold Plus award winners include UPMC Altoona, UPMC Hamot, UPMC Horizon, UPMC McKeesport, UPMC Mercy, UPMC Northwest, UPMC Presbyterian, UPMC St. Margaret and UPMC Shadyside. Silver Plus winners are UPMC East and UPMC Passavant.
Another award category, the Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus, recognized UPMC hospitals for meeting quality measures developed to reduce the time between the patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with the clot-buster tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), which is 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.
The UPMC hospitals also must meet specific scientific guidelines as Advanced Primary Stroke Centers, which are capable of rapidly treating patients 24/7 when admitted to the emergency department.
Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus award winners include UPMC Hamot, UPMC Northwest, UPMC Passavant, and UPMC Presbyterian; Honor Roll Elite winners include UPMC Altoona, UPMC Mercy and UPMC St. Margaret. UPMC McKeesport was awarded the Honor Roll.