Stony Brook University Hospital’s (SBUH) Comprehensive Stroke Center is an inaugural recipient of a new national recognition award from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association and the Get With The Guidelines® quality improvement registry (GWTG). This award, Target: Stroke Advanced Therapy Elite Honor Roll Award®, recognizes hospitals that deliver timely endovascular therapy for patients with severe stroke.
This recognition is a continuation of SBUH’s 10-year history of national quality achievement awards, including the Stroke Gold Plus/Stroke Gold Plus Elite Awards, the highest quality awards given for continuous quality improvements demonstrating best practice for outstanding outcomes. These awards recognize the hospital’s commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.
Get With The Guidelines is a robust registry that offers real-time benchmarking capabilities to track performance. It recognizes hospitals annually for high quality and the consistent application of best-practice, research-based standards of care, which reduce recovery time, disability and mortality rates for stroke patients. The awards recognize success in meeting or exceeding standards established by the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association. To earn recognition in stroke care, the standards include aggressive use of medications, such as clot-busting and anti-clotting drugs, blood thinners and cholesterol-reducing drugs; preventive action for deep vein thrombosis; and smoking cessation counseling.
The SBUH interdisciplinary Stroke Leadership team developed policies, protocols and evidence-based guidelines that are supported through hospital-wide stroke education to ensure best practice and patient outcomes. These awards recognize our dedicated, multidisciplinary team, working 24/7 to achieve the best results possible for stroke patients. The entire stroke team is an integral part of providing the kind of rapid and coordinated effort that has earned us top honors.
Stroke can be a devastating disease. It is the number five 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. ÐÇ¿ÕÎÞÏÞ´«Ã½â€™s commitment to stroke patients has reached a more comprehensive level of care to the residents of Suffolk County with the launch of Long Island’s first Mobile Stroke Unit (MSU) Program last year. The MSU is designed to provide specialized, lifesaving care to people within the critical moments of stroke before they even get to the hospital. This revolutionary pre-hospital process allows for time-sensitive stroke therapies to be administered earlier and allows for the transport of stroke patients directly to the most appropriate hospital for the level of care they require, the first time.
These nationally recognized awards, in addition to Healthgrades 2020 Report to the Nation recognizing SBUH as one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Stroke Care™ for five consecutive years, leave no doubt about the expert stroke care provided at SBUH.
Being honored for excellent patient care is the best recognition a hospital can receive. We are very proud to have earned these awards, because it confirms that we are meeting evidence-based clinical guidelines developed to improve patient outcomes in stroke care. Thank you to our amazing team for your commitment to providing excellent patient care by turning these treatment guidelines into lifelines.
Carol