As Navicent Health prepares to observe National Stroke Month during May, the Medical Center, Navicent Health (MCNH) will receive its fourth “Get With the Guidelines – Stroke Gold Plus” Quality Achievement Award from the American Heart Association / American Stroke Association (AHA).

AHA will present MCNH with the award in a ceremony on Wednesday, April 22 at 1:00 p.m. The ceremony will take place in MCNH’s Luce Heart Institute lobby, at the corner of First and Hemlock Streets  in Macon. This is not a public event, but media are invited to attend. A reception will follow the ceremony.

The “Get With the Guidelines – Stroke Gold Plus” Quality Achievement Award demonstrates MCNH’s commitment to quality care for stroke patients, and success in implementing an exemplary standard of care for stroke patients, according to evidence-based guidelines. In order to receive the award, MCNH achieved an 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality Achievement indicators for two or more consecutive 12-month intervals and achieved 75 percent or higher compliance with six of 10 Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality Measures, which are reporting initiatives to measure quality of care.

These measures include aggressive use of medications, such as antithrombotics, anticoagulation therapy, deep vein thrombosis prophylaxis, cholesterol reducing drugs and smoking cessation, all aimed at reducing death and disability and improving the lives of stroke patients. According to AHA, the full implementation of acute care and secondary prevention recommendations and guidelines is a critical step in saving the lives and improving outcomes of stroke patients.          

In addition to the Get With The Guideline-Stroke award, MCNH has also been recognized as a recipient of the association’s Target: Stroke Honor Roll for improving stroke care. Over the past year, MCNH has been able to significantly increase the number of  eligible ischemic stroke patients who receive tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, within 60 minutes of arriving at the hospital (known as ‘door-to-needle’ time). A thrombolytic, or clot-busting agent, tPA is the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the urgent treatment of ischemic stroke. If given intravenously in the first three hours after the start of stroke symptoms, tPA has been shown to significantly reverse the effects of stroke and reduce permanent disability.

“With a stroke, time lost is brain lost, and this award demonstrates the Medical Center, Navicent Health’s commitment to being one of the top hospitals in the United States for providing compassionate, proven stroke care. We will continue to quickly and efficiently treat stroke patients with evidence-based protocols,” said Dr. Fady Wanna, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Clinical Officer for Navicent Health.   

According to AHA, stroke is one of the leading causes of death and serious, long-term disability in the United States.  On average, 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.

“The number of acute ischemic stroke patients eligible for treatment is expected to grow over the next decade due to increasing stroke incidence and a large aging population. The Medical Center, Navicent Health will remain focused on improving the quality of stroke care by implementing evidence-based guidelines such as Get With The Guidelines–Stroke,” said Dr. Wanna.