Scripps Hospitals Recognized for Stroke Care Excellence by American Heart Association and American Stroke Association

Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, Scripps Green Hospital and Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas have all earned a high-level performance achievement award for meeting strict, evidence-based guidelines related to stroke care during 2013. The hospitals were granted the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines® Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award.

“To be recognized by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association for excellent stroke care confirms that patients who seek stroke treatment at Scripps are receiving the best care possible,” said James E. LaBelle, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Scripps Health. “We offer our patients the full spectrum of stroke care, including aggressive acute inpatient and outpatient stroke rehabilitation to ensure patients regain their quality of life and independence after stroke.”

The award recognizes 24 consecutive months of exceeding the national benchmark in seven categories of stroke care.

Stroke care at Scripps

Scripps La Jolla and Scripps Encinitas have also been named to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s “Target: Stroke” honor roll for their commitment to and success in improving care for stroke patients. Scripps Mercy Hospital (San Diego and Chula Vista) was also listed on the honor roll in September of 2013.

The Target: Stroke designation confirms that, at least 50 percent of all eligible ischemic stroke patients received the important clot-busting drug known as intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) within 60 minutes of arriving at the hospital. The drug is the only approved acute-stroke treatment for clot-related, or ischemic, stroke and has been shown to reduce stroke-related disability.

Additionally, all of the Scripps hospitals with emergency rooms are designated as Stroke Centers by The Joint Commission. Scripps Memorial La Jolla is designated as a Comprehensive Stroke Center and Scripps Mercy and Scripps Encinitas are designated as Primary Stroke Centers.

The designations confirm that the hospitals always have available a team of physicians who provides the most up-to-date and efficient stroke care, along with the tools and expertise to treat acute stroke quickly and competently to minimize or even reverse damage to the patient’s health.

Scripps Mercy was granted the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Silver Quality Achievement Award earlier this year.

The facts about stroke

According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is one of the leading causes of death and serious, long-term disability in the United States. On average, someone suffers a stroke every 40 seconds; someone dies of a stroke every four minutes; and 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.

About Get With The Guidelines

Get With The Guidelines® is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program that empowers health care teams to save lives and reduce health care costs by helping hospitals follow evidence-based guidelines and recommendations. For more information, visit heart.org/quality.

The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke program helps hospitals improve their quality of care by ensuring that patients are treated according to the latest scientific guidelines for stroke care.

Get With The Guidelines recognizes three levels of hospital performance with bronze, silver, and gold awards. The Gold Plus distinction means that Scripps Hospitals achieved not only 85 percent or higher compliance in performance criteria, but also 75 percent or better compliance in a variety of measures that indicate quality of care. These quality measures include aggressive use of medications such as tPA, antithrombotics, anticoagulation therapy, DVT prophylaxis, cholesterol-reducing drugs and smoking cessation.