University hospitals nationally recognized for commitment to high-quality stroke care

CLEVELAND—University Hospitals (UH) has received numerous American Heart Association/American Stroke Association Get With The Guidelines® – Stroke achievement awards for demonstrating commitment to following the latest, research-based guidelines for the treatment of stroke, ultimately leading to more lives saved, shorter recovery times and fewer readmissions to the hospital.

Stroke is a leading cause of adult disability and the No. 5 cause of death in the nation. Every 40 seconds, someone in the U.S. suffers from a stroke. Studies show patients can recover better when providers consistently follow treatment guidelines.

“University Hospitals is committed to improving care by adhering to the latest treatment guidelines and streamlining processes to ensure timely and proper care for patients with stroke,” said Cathy Sila, MD, Chair of the Department of Neurology at University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and the Gilbert W. Humphrey Endowed Professor of Neurology. “The Get With The Guidelines program makes it easier for our teams to put proven knowledge and guidelines to work daily, which helps us ensure more people in Cleveland and surrounding areas can live longer, healthier lives. We are proud to be recognized for our efforts this year, and are especially proud of our rural hospitals who have made it a goal to ensure certain hurdles, like transportation times and staffing, do not affect the standard of care our patients receive.”  

The awards recognize hospitals that demonstrate at least 85 percent compliance in each of the seven Get With The Guidelines®- Stroke Achievement Measures. Tier levels are determined by the length of demonstrated performance.

The following UH hospitals received these American Heart Association levels of achievement this year:

Get With The Guidelines – Stroke Gold Plus and Target: Stroke℠ Honor Roll Elite Plus
Gold recognizes performance of 24 consecutive months or more. Gold Plus awards are advanced levels of recognition acknowledging hospitals for consistent compliance with quality measures. Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus recognizes 75% of applicable patients experiencing door-to-needle times of 45 minutes or less, and 50% of applicable patients experiencing door-to-needle times of 30 minutes or less. (Door-to-needle times refer to the time between hospital arrival and intravenous thrombolytic therapy (IVT) administration.)

• UH Cleveland Medical Center
• UH Portage Medical Center

Get With The Guidelines – Stroke Gold Plus and Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite
85% of applicable patients experiencing door to needle times of 60 minutes or less

• UH Ahuja Medical Center
• UH Lake Health Medical Centers
• UH Parma Medical Center
• UH Samaritan Medical Center
• Southwest General Hospital (a joint-venture hospital)
• UH St. John Medical Center

Get With The Guidelines – Stroke Gold Plus and Target: Stroke Honor Roll
75% of applicable patients experiencing door to needle times of 60 minutes or less

• UH Geauga Medical Center, a campus of UH Regional Hospitals
• Western Reserve Hospital (a joint-venture hospital)

Get With The Guidelines – Stroke Gold Plus 

• UH Elyria Medical Center 
• UH Geneva Medical Center

Get with The Guidelines – Stroke Silver Plus
Silver recognizes performance of 12 consecutive months or more. Silver Plus awards are advanced levels of recognition acknowledging hospitals for consistent compliance with quality measures.

• UH Conneaut Medical Center

Get With The Guidelines – Rural Stroke Bronze (new award category this year)
This award recognizes hospitals for their efforts toward acute stroke care excellence demonstrated by composite score compliance to guideline-directed care for intravenous thrombolytic therapy, timely hospital inter-facility transfer, dysphagia screening, symptom timeline and deficit assessment documentation, emergency medical services communication, brain imaging and stroke expert consultation.

• UH Conneaut Medical Center
• UH Geneva Medical Center
• UH Samaritan Medical Center           

UH Ahuja, Cleveland, Elyria, Geauga, Geneva, Parma, Portage, Samaritan, and St. John medical centers, as well as Southwest General Health Center and Western Reserve Hospital received Target: Type 2 Diabetes℠ Honor Roll awards. These awards recognize hospitals for providing the most up-to-date, evidence-based care for patients with type 2 diabetes who are hospitalized with heart failure, heart attack or stroke.

“We are pleased to recognize University Hospitals for their commitment to caring for those in their community who need cardiovascular care,” said John Warner, MD, FAHA, past president of the American Heart Association and CEO of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. “Hospitals that follow the American Heart Association’s quality improvement protocols often see improved patient outcomes, fewer readmissions and lower mortality rates — a win for healthcare systems, families and communities.”

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About University Hospitals / Cleveland, Ohio
Founded in 1866, University Hospitals serves the needs of patients through an integrated network of 21 hospitals (including five joint ventures), more than 50 health centers and outpatient facilities, and over 200 physician offices in 16 counties throughout northern Ohio. The system’s flagship quaternary care, academic medical center, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, is affiliated with Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Northeast Ohio Medical University, Oxford University, the Technion Israel Institute of Technology and National Taiwan University College of Medicine. The main campus also includes the UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, ranked among the top children’s hospitals in the nation; UH MacDonald Women’s Hospital, Ohio’s only hospital for women; and UH Seidman Cancer Center, part of the NCI-designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. UH is home to some of the most prestigious clinical and research programs in the nation, with more than 3,000 active clinical trials and research studies underway. UH Cleveland Medical Center is perennially among the highest performers in national ranking surveys, including “America’s Best Hospitals” from U.S. News & World Report. UH is also home to 19 Clinical Care Delivery and Research Institutes. UH is one of the largest employers in Northeast Ohio with more than 30,000 employees. Follow UH on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. For more information, visit UHhospitals.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 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 12 million patients since 2001. For more information, visit heart.org.