Avera McKennan receives Gold Performance Achievement Award for Excellence in Stroke Care
SIOUX FALLS (July 29, 2010) - Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's Get With The GuidelinesSM Stroke Gold Performance Achievement Award. The award recognizes Avera McKennan's commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of stroke care by ensuring that stroke patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted standards and recommendations.
"With a stroke, time lost is brain lost, and the GWTG-Stroke Gold Performance Achievement Award addresses the important element of time," said Mary Jones, Avera McKennan Director of Neurosciences. "Avera McKennan has developed a comprehensive protocol for rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients," Jones said. This includes being equipped 24/7 to provide brain imaging scans, having neurologists available to conduct patient evaluations and using clot-busting medications when appropriate.
To receive the GWTG-Stroke Gold Performance Achievement Award, Avera McKennan had to achieve two or more consecutive 12 month intervals of 85% or higher adherence to all GWTG Stroke performance achievement indicators to improve quality of patient care and outcomes. In 2008 and 2009, Avera McKennan received the GWTG Silver Award.
Avera McKennan has been using GTWG-Stroke since 2004. "We have been able to improve our outcomes by decreasing complications and reducing readmissions, and provide enhanced education not only to patients, families and caregivers but to the community as well. We can easily track our outcomes on a monthly basis to ensure quality care for all stroke patients," Jones said.
In 2005, the Avera McKennan Stroke Center became the first in South Dakota to gain disease-specific certification as a primary stroke center from the Joint Commission. Avera McKennan's Stroke Center has held this certification for the past six years.
According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States and a leading cause of serious, long-term disability. On average someone suffers a stroke every 45 seconds; someone dies of a stroke every three minutes; and 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.
