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Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience’s Stroke Center will receive the American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guideline’s(GWTG) Gold and Silver Performance Achievement Awards.

The awards recognize Jefferson Hospital’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of stroke care by ensuring that stroke patients receive treatment for at least 24 months according to nationally accepted standards and recommendations. The awards will be presented Thursday, November 15, during a ceremony at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

“With a stroke, time lost is brain lost, and the Performance Achievement Awards address the important element of time,” said Rodney Bell, M.D., director of the Stroke Center. “We have developed a comprehensive system for rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients admitted to the emergency department. This includes always being equipped to provide brain imaging scans, having neurologistsavailable to conduct patient evaluations and using clot-busting medications when appropriate.”

Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience’s Stroke Center is one of the most advanced centers in the United States for the diagnosis, management, prevention and research of stroke. It is the largest facility dedicated to the care of acute stroke in the greater Delaware Valley.

To receive the two Performance Achievement Awards, Jefferson Hospital was able to demonstrate 85 percent adherence in the Get With The Guideline’skey measures for 24 or more consecutive months. These include aggressive use of medications like tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), antithrombotics, anticoagulation therapy, deep venous thrombosis (DVT)prophylaxis, cholesterol-reducing drugs, and smoking cessation.

“The American Stroke Association commends Jefferson Hospitalfor its success in implementing standards of care and protocols,” said Lee H. Schwamm, M.D., national Get With The Guidelines Steering Committee Member and director of the acute stroke services at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “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.”

The GWTG-strokeprogram uses the “teachable moment,” the time soon after a patient has had a stroke, when they are most likely to listen to and follow their healthcare professionals’ guidance. Studies demonstrate that patients who are taught how to manage their risk factors while still in the hospital reduce their risk of a second heart attack or stroke. ThroughGWTG–­Stroke, customized patient education materials are made available at the point of discharge, based on patients’ individual risk profiles. The take-away materials are written in an easy-to-understand format and are available in English and Spanish. In addition, the GWTG Patient Management Tool provides access to up-to-date cardiovascular and stroke science at the point of care.

"The time is right for Jefferson to be focused on improving the quality of stroke care by implementing the GWTG–­Stroke methodology. 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,” said Dr. Bell, professor of Neurology, Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University.

According to the American Stroke Association, each year approximately 700,000 people suffer a stroke — 500,000 are first attacks and 200,000 are recurrent. Of stroke survivors, 21 percent of men and 24 percent of women die within a year, and for those aged 65 and older, the percentage is even higher. 

Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience’s Stroke Center has been recognized as a place for the “Best Care in Philadelphia” and as “one of the most advanced centers in the United States for stroke prevention, diagnosis, treatment and research” by Philadelphia magazine.  The Stroke Center’s approach to care is also multidisciplinary, incorporating, as the needs of each individual patient demand, the expertise of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital’s extensive medical staff of leading specialists in various disciplines, and accounting, in large part, for its recognition as a center of excellence.