CHI St. Joseph Health Regional Hospital recently received four accolades from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. Regional Hospital was awarded the “Get With The Guidelines – Stroke Gold Plus with Honor Roll Elite Achievement” award, the “Get With The Guidelines – Heart Failure Gold Plus Quality Achievement” award, the “Mission: Lifeline NSTEMI Gold Achievement” award, and the “Mission: Lifeline STEMI Receiving Center – Gold Plus” award. This marks the sixth consecutive year CHI St. Joseph Health has been recognized by the AHA/ASA for excellence in cardiovascular and stroke care.
“These awards are significant because they showcase our continuing commitment to improving quality of care for our heart attack, heart failure, and stroke patients,” says CHI St. Joseph Health President and CEO Theron Park. “Our CHI St. Joseph Health team works to meet and exceed quality measures, ensuring that our patients receive the best care available.”
CHI St. Joseph Health earned the “Get With The Guidelines – Stroke Gold Plus with Honor Roll Elite Achievement” award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for diagnosing and treating 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.
CHI St. Joseph Health qualified for the Honor Roll Elite Plus award by meeting quality measures developed to reduce the time between the patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with the clot-buster tissue plasminogen activator, the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke.
CHI St. Joseph Health earned the “Get With The Guidelines – Heart Failure Gold Plus Quality Achievement” award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of heart failure patients at a set level for a designated period. These measures include evaluation of the proper use of medications and aggressive risk-reduction therapies. Before discharge, patients should also receive education on managing their heart failure and overall health, get a follow-up visit scheduled, as well as other care transition interventions.
The health system received NSTEMI recognition for meeting specific criteria and standards of performance for the quick and appropriate treatment of NSTEMI heart attack patients by providing emergency procedures to re-establish blood flow to blocked arteries when needed.
CHI St. Joseph Health received the STEMI recognition for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association for the treatment of patients who suffer severe heart attacks. This means the organization meets specific standards of performance for quick and appropriate treatment through emergency procedures to re-establish blood flow to blocked arteries in heart attack patients coming into the hospital directly or by transfer from another facility.
CHI St. Joseph Health received gold status in all four awards as recognition for 24 or more months consecutively meeting 85% compliance.
“Get With The Guidelines” is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program that provides hospitals with tools and resources to increase adherence to the latest research-based guidelines. This program is used widely by more than 1,500 hospitals across the country.
