Baptist Health Floyd Recognized with Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award for Stroke Care

Baptist Health Floyd Recognized with Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award for Stroke Care

Baptist Health Floyd has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's Get With The Guidelines^®-Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award with Target: Stroke^SM Honor Roll.

The award recognizes the Hospital's commitment and success 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.

To qualify for the Target: Stroke Honor Roll, hospitals must meet quality measures developed to reduce 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. If given intravenously in the first three hours after the start of stroke symptoms, tPA has been shown to significantly reduce the effects of stroke and lessen the chance of permanent disability.

Baptist Health Floyd 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 quality measures are designed to help hospital teams follow the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. Each minute stroke treatment is delayed; the patient loses 1.9 million neurons.

"Our team is committed to delivering advanced stroke treatments to patients quickly and safely," said Baptist Health Floyd Stroke Center medical director Ajmal Bangesh, MD.