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LewisGale Medical Center Receives 'Get With The Guidelines' Silver Award for Stroke Care

November 02, 2011

Salem, VA, November, 2011 – LewisGale Medical Center has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's Get With The Guidelines®– Stroke Silver Quality Achievement Award. The award recognizes LewisGale Medical Center's commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care by ensuring that stroke patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted standards and recommendations.

To receive this quality achievement award, LewisGale Medical Center achieved 85 percent or greater adherence to all Get With The Guidelines stroke performance achievement indicators for improving quality of patient care and outcomes. The performance measures included deep vein thrombosis prophylaxis, discharged on antibiotic therapy, administration of thrombolytic therapy if criteria met, smoking cessation/advice/counseling and stroke education. This twelve-month evaluation period is the second in an ongoing self-evaluation by the hospital to continually reach the 85 percent compliance level needed to sustain this award. In 2010 LewisGale Medical Center was awarded the Get With The Guidelines Stroke Bronze Award.

LewisGale Medical Center has developed a comprehensive standard system for rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients admitted to the emergency department.

"With a stroke, time lost is brain lost, and these guidelines help us ensure our patients have the best possible outcomes," said Victor E. Giovanetti, President, LewisGale Regional Health System.

"The American Stroke Association commends LewisGale Medical Center for its success in implementing standards of care and protocols," 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."

According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is one of the leading causes of death and serious, long-term disability in the United States. 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.