Tuesday, August 27 (2024) – Owosso – Memorial Healthcare has received the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines® – Stroke Gold Plus with Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite, the Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll quality achievement award for its commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines, ultimately leading to more lives saved and reduced disability and Get With The Guidelines® – Rural Stroke Silver award, for efforts to optimize stroke care and eliminate rural health care outcome disparities.
Stroke is the No. 5 cause of death and a leading cause of disability in the United States. A stroke occurs when a blood vessel that carries oxygen and nutrients to the brain is either blocked by a clot or bursts. When that happens, part of the brain cannot get the blood and oxygen it needs, so brain cells die. Early stroke detection and treatment are key to improving survival, minimizing disability and accelerating recovery times.
Get With The Guidelines puts the expertise of the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association to work for hospitals nationwide, helping ensure patient care is aligned with the latest research and evidence-based guidelines. Get With The Guidelines – Stroke is an in-hospital program for improving stroke care by promoting consistent adherence to these guidelines, which can minimize the long-term effects of a stroke and even prevent death.
“Memorial Healthcare is committed to improving patient care by adhering to the latest treatment guidelines,” stated Rebekah Hackenberg, Stroke Program Manager. “Get With The Guidelines makes it easier for our teams to put proven knowledge and guidelines to work on a daily basis, which studies show can help patients recover better. Our goal at Memorial Healthcare is to ensure more people in our community can experience longer, healthier lives.”
Each year, program participants qualify for the award by demonstrating how their organization has committed to providing quality care for stroke patients. In addition to following treatment guidelines, Get With The Guidelines participants also educate patients to help them manage their health and recovery at home.
“We are incredibly pleased to recognize Memorial Healthcare for its commitment to caring for patients with stroke,” said Steven Messe, M.D., volunteer chairperson of the American Heart Association Stroke System of Care Advisory Group and professor of neurology and director of fellowships of neurology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. “Participation in Get With The Guidelines is associated with improved patient outcomes, fewer readmissions and lower mortality rates – a win for health care systems, families and communities.”
Memorial Healthcare also received the American Heart Association’s Target: Type 2 Diabetes™ Honor Roll award. Target: Type 2 Diabetes aims to ensure patients with Type 2 diabetes, who might be at higher risk for complications, receive the most up-to-date, evidence-based care when hospitalized due to stroke.
In addition, Memorial Healthcare has received the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines® – Rural Stroke Silver award, for efforts to optimize stroke care and eliminate rural health care outcome disparities.
“We are proud that our team at Memorial Healthcare is being recognized for the important work we do every day to improve the lives of people in our community who are affected by stroke, giving them the best possible chance of recovery and survival,” said Rebekah Hackenberg, Stroke Program Manager. “Rural communities deserve high quality stroke care. I’m proud of our team for their commitment to stroke care excellence and this achievement.”
The 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.
“Patients and health care professionals in Shiawassee County face unique health care challenges and opportunities,” said Karen E. Joynt Maddox, M.D., MPH, volunteer expert for the American Heart Association, co-author on “Call to Action: Rural Health: A Presidential Advisory from the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association” and co-director of the Center for Health Economics and Policy at the Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. “Memorial Healthcare has furthered this important work to improve care for all Americans, regardless of where they live.”
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 14 million patients since 2001. For more information, visit heart.org.
