The Vanderbilt Stroke Center has once again struck gold, receiving top honors from the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association.
The Stroke Center has received the Get With The Guidelines Stroke Gold-Plus Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures for the treatment of stroke patients. These measures include aggressive use of medications and risk-reduction therapies aimed at reducing death and disability and improving the lives of stroke patients.
“Vanderbilt is dedicated to improving the quality of stroke care and Get With The Guidelines helps us achieve that goal,” said Howard Kirshner, M.D., professor of Neurology and director of the Vanderbilt Stroke Center.
“With this award, our hospital demonstrates our commitment to ensure that our patients receive care based on internationally-respected clinical guidelines.”
The Stroke Center also received the association’s Target: Stroke Honor Roll for meeting stroke quality measures that reduce the time between hospital arrival and treatment with tPA, the clot-busting drug.
The goal set for Target: Stroke is a door-to-needle time within 60 minutes in at least 50 percent of stroke patients treated with IV tPA. Vanderbilt treats 63 percent of patients within that 60-minute window.
According to the AHA/ASA, stroke is the No. 4 cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the United States.
On average, someone suffers a stroke every 40 seconds, someone dies of a stroke every 4 minutes, and 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.
