The Brooklyn Hospital Center Receives Get With The Guidelines Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award

American Heart Association Award recognizes TBHC’s quality stroke care

The Brooklyn Hospital Center (TBHC) has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines^® Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite plus Gold plus Quality Achievement Award. The award recognizes the hospital’s commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines.

TBHC 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 measures include evaluation of the proper use of medications and other stroke treatments aligned with the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. Before discharge, patients should also receive education on managing their health, get a follow-up visit scheduled, as well as other care transition interventions.

“TBHC is dedicated to improving the quality of care for our stroke patients by implementing the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke initiative,” says Gary G. Terrinoni, President and CEO of TBHC. “The tools and resources provided help us track and measure our success in meeting evidenced-based clinical guidelines developed to improve patient outcomes.”

TBHC additionally received the association’s Stroke^SM Honor Roll/Target and Stroke^SM Elite Plus award. To qualify for this recognition, hospitals must meet quality measures developed to reduce the 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.

“This achievement is the result of TBHC’s excellent Neurology team, and our outstanding Emergency Department, comprised of all board-certified physicians and specialists with extensive training in Emergency Medicine,” says Sylvie DeSouza, Chair of Emergency Medicine. “Also, none of us an achieve excellence without the support of our top ancillary services, such as our Radiology and Pharmacy teams.”

According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the fifth cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the United States. On average, someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke every 40 seconds and nearly 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.