McLaren Oakland has earned the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association Get With The Guidelines®–Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award. The award recognizes the hospital’s commitment and success in ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally-recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.
To receive the Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award, hospitals must achieve 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get with the Guidelines-Stroke achievement indicators for at least 12 consecutive months and, during the same period, achieve 75 percent or higher compliance with five of eight Get with the Guidelines-Stroke Quality measures. These quality measures are designed to help hospital teams provide the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. They focus on appropriate use of guideline-based care for stroke patients, including aggressive use of medications such as clot-busting and anti-clotting medications, blood thinners and cholesterol-reducing medications, preventative action for deep vein thrombosis and smoking cessation counseling.
“A stroke patient loses 1.9 million neurons each minute stroke treatment is delayed. This recognition further demonstrates our commitment to delivering advanced stroke treatments to patients quickly and safely,” said Karen Hanley, stroke coordinator at McLaren Oakland. “McLaren Oakland continues to strive for excellence in the acute treatment of stroke patients. The recognition from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get with the Guidelines-Stroke further reinforces our team’s hard work.”
McLaren Oakland has also met specific scientific guidelines as a Primary Stroke Center, featuring a comprehensive system for rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients admitted to the emergency department.
“The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association recognize McLaren Oakland for its commitment to stroke care,” Paul Heidenreich, MD, MS, national chairman of the Get with the Guidelines Steering Committee and Professor of Medicine at Stanford University said in a statement. “Research has shownthere are benefits to patients who are treated at hospitals that have adopted the Get with the Guidelines program.”
According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the number five 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 four minutes and 800,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.
About McLaren Oakland
McLaren Oakland is a 328-bed medical center that provides primary and specialty healthcare services to the greater Pontiac and Oakland County community. Founded in 1953, McLaren Oakland has grown to a full-fledged medical community that includes more than 300 physicians, an inpatient hospital with a range of services including cardiovascular care, cancer services, women’s health, minimally invasive robotic surgery, comprehensive orthopedic services, and a state-of-the-art Surgery Center. McLaren Oakland is also a verified trauma center and an accredited stroke center. To learn more, visit www.mclaren.org/Oakland
About McLaren Health Care
McLaren Health Care, headquartered in Flint, Mich., is a fully integrated health network committed to quality evidence-based patient care and cost efficiency. The McLaren system includes 12 hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, imaging centers, the state’s only proton therapy center, an employed primary care physician network, commercial and Medicaid HMOs covering more than 250,000 lives, home health and hospice providers, durable medical equipment services, retail pharmacy services, and a wholly owned medical malpractice insurance company. McLaren operates Michigan’s largest network of cancer centers and providers, anchored by Karmanos Cancer Institute, one of only two National Cancer Institute-designated centers in the state. McLaren has 21,000 employees and more than 20,000 network physicians. Its operations are housed in more than 300 facilities serving a 54-county market and 75 percent of Michigan’s population. Learn more at mclaren.org.
About Get with the Guidelines
Get with the Guidelines is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program that provides hospitals with tools and resources to increase adherence to the latest research-based guidelines. Developed with the goal of saving lives and hastening recovery, Get with the Guidelines has touched the lives of more than 6 million patients since 2001. For more information, visit heart.org.