UVA Stroke Program Honored for Quality
Charlottesville,VA (PRWEB) April 24, 2014 -- The American Heart Association has recognized the quality and safety of UVA’s stroke care with two awards.
UVA received both the Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold-Plus Quality Achievement Award and made the Target: Stroke Honor Roll. The awards represent the highest level of stroke quality recognition offered by the AHA.
“We couldn’t be happier to receive these awards,” said Heather Turner, coordinator of UVA’s stroke program. “A lot of hard work and dedication goes into making sure our patients are receiving the highest level of quality care.”
UVA Exceeds All Measures
UVA received the Gold-Plus quality award for reaching 85 percent or higher compliance with core levels of care for two or more consecutive years and at least 75 percent compliance with seven additional stroke quality measures.
UVA exceeded compliance on all Gold-Plus quality measures it submitted to the AHA, including:
• Time from arrival at hospital to Intravenous Thrombolytic Therapy (clot-busting drug treatment) of 60 minutes or less
• Percent of stroke patients who arrive at UVA within 210 minutes of stroke who are treated within 270 minutes with tPA (tissue plasminogen activator)
• Screening patients for dysphagia (trouble swallowing)
• Stroke education
• Assessing patients for rehabilitation services
• Documentation of a patient’s LDL cholesterol
• Discharging patients with Intensive Statin Therapy
The Target: Stroke Honor Roll designation means UVA meets quality measures for reducing the time between hospital arrival and treatment with tPA.
For 2013, UVA treated 82 percent of patients with tPA within a 60-minute time window. That figure is up from 73 percent in 2012, and compares with a 59 percent national average. The average time from when a patient enters the doors at UVA to treatment with tPA is 52 minutes, compared with 63 minutes nationally.
The Safest, Most Comprehensive Stroke Care
UVA has an acute stroke team on-call 24 hours a day.
The team of neurologists, neurointensivists, neuroradiologists, neurosurgeons and specially trained stroke care nurses is able to offer a comprehensive set of treatment options at all times, including neuro-interventional and neurosurgical treatment for acute stroke.
UVA doctors are also developing an Internet-based telehealth program called iTreat to guide stroke treatments for patients who are being transported to UVA.
David Hendrick, University of Virginia Health System, +1 (434) 327-9546, [email protected]
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