Hoag Receives “Get With the Guidelines” Stroke GOLD PLUS Awards

 

Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian announced it has received the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association’s “Get With The Guidelines® Stroke GOLD PLUS Quality Achievement Awards for its hospitals in Newport Beach and Irvine. The comprehensive Stroke Program of the Pickup Family Neurosciences Institute coordinates stroke care at both Hoag hospitals, each of which also received Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite designation. Additionally, the Newport Beach hospital received Advanced Therapy recognition.

This is the 13th straight year Hoag has received GOLD PLUS stroke awards, the sixth year for the Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite and the second year for Advanced Therapy acknowledging Hoag’s comprehensive, patient-centered program. 

Hoag was recognized for its commitment to ensuring patients receive the most appropriate diagnosis and treatment according to research-based guidelines founded on the latest scientific evidence and recommendations. This commitment to leading-class care is one reason Hoag is the highest-volume stroke center in Orange County and the 10th busiest in California, according to the Department of Health Care Access and Information.

“Stroke care is advancing rapidly and this award demonstrates Hoag’s commitment to delivering advanced stroke treatments quickly and safely to provide the best possible outcomes for our patients,” said Michael Brant-Zawadzki, M.D., F.A.C.R., senior physician executive and the Ron & Sandi Simon Executive Medical Director endowed Chair of the Pickup Family Neurosciences Institute. “Hoag Stroke Program’s multidisciplinary team is highly skilled and ready 24/7 to evaluate and successfully treat patients within an hour of arrival at the hospital. We are seeing lives saved and quality of life preserved in unprecedented numbers compared to much of the nation.”

To qualify for GOLD PLUS stroke awards, hospitals must meet a range of quality achievement measures for a set period. These measures include evaluation of the proper use of medications and other stroke treatments aligned with the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. Before discharge, patients receive education on managing their health, as well as other care transition interventions.

Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite hospitals must meet 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), the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke. Hospitals recognized with Target: Stroke Honor Roll Advanced Therapy designation meet door-to-device times in at least 50% of applicable patients within 90 minutes for direct arriving and within 60 minutes for emergency transport. 

 Hoag is consistently ranked among the best hospitals in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, which rated Hoag’s stroke services as high performing. Hoag Hospital Newport Beach is also certified as a Comprehensive Stroke Center and Hoag Hospital Irvine is certified as a Primary Stroke Center by DNV Healthcare USA, Inc., affirming Hoag’s readiness to handle a full range of stroke-related medical problems. 

 “For a program to be successful, you need outreach to first responders, specialized stroke care nurses, technologists, expert medical staff, specialized neuro-interventionalists and the neurologists working as a team to help manage the patient,” said David Brown, M.D., medical director of Hoag’s Stroke Program. “Our rapid response stroke team is equipped to treat the most complex stroke cases from the initial and rapid diagnosis, advanced and state-of-the-art treatment, comprehensive rehabilitation program and communitywide stroke education.”

By: Stu News Newport

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