Fayetteville, Ga. (June 17, 2019) - Piedmont Fayette Hospital has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines Stroke Gold Plus with Target Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus Quality Achievement Award. The award recognizes the hospital’s commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.
Piedmont Fayette earned the award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients at a set level for a designated 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 should also receive education on managing their health, get a follow-up visit scheduled, as well as other care transition interventions.
“We’ve seen consistent growth and improvement from our stroke program at Piedmont Fayette because we are dedicated to implementing the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines stroke initiative and using the tools and resources,” said Nathan Nipper, Piedmont Fayette’s Chief Operating Officer. “The goal of this program is to improve patient outcomes and we have been very successful by following these evidence-based guidelines.”
Piedmont Fayette additionally received the association’s Target Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus award. To qualify for this recognition, 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, or tPA, the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke.
“We are pleased to recognize Piedmont Fayette for their commitment to stroke care,” said Lee H. Schwamm, M.D., national chairperson of the Quality Oversight Committee and Executive Vice Chair of Neurology, Director of Acute Stroke Services, Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston. “Research has shown that hospitals adhering to clinical measures through the Get With The Guidelines quality improvement initiative can often see fewer readmissions and lower mortality rates.”
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 and nearly 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.
Learn more about Piedmont's stroke program at piedmont.org/stroke.