Phelps Memorial Hospital Center Honored for Outstanding Stroke Care

This year, for the first time, Phelps Memorial Hospital Center received the American Heart/American Stroke Association's "Target: Stroke Honor Roll" for meeting stroke quality measures that reduce the time between hospital arrival and treatment with the clot-buster tPA. For ischemic strokes, in which an artery to the brain is blocked, tPA is the only treatment drug that is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. People who suffer a stroke who receive the drug within three hours of the onset of symptoms may recover quicker and are less likely to suffer severe disability.

In addition, for the fifth year in a row, Phelps Memorial Hospital Center has received the Get With the Guidelines-Stroke "Gold Plus" Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association for the treatment of stroke patients.

Get With the Guidelines-Stroke helps hospital teams provide the most up-to-date, research-based treatments with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. Phelps earned the award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients at a set level for a designated period. These measures include the aggressive use of medications and risk-reduction therapies.

"Phelps is dedicated to improving the quality of stroke care, and Get With the Guidelines helps us achieve that goal," said Elaine Gardner, BSN, RN, CCRN, Stroke Coordinator. "With this award, our hospital demonstrates our commitment to ensure that our patients receive care based on internationally-respected clinical guidelines."

"We are pleased to recognize Phelps for their commitment and dedication to stroke care," said Deepak L. Bhatt, M.D., M.P.H., national chairman of the Get With the Guidelines steering committee and Executive Director of Interventional Cardiovascular Programs at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "Studies have shown that hospitals that consistently follow Get With the Guidelines quality improvement measures can reduce patients' length of stays and 30-day readmission rates and reduce disparity gaps in care."

According to the AHA/ASA, stroke is the fourth 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; and yet, only 26 percent of the general public can name one or more of the warning signs. Eighty percent of strokes are preventable by such measures as controlling hypertension, exe rcising, maintaining a healthy weight, and not smoking.

To contact the Stroke Center at Phelps, call 914-366-3397. For more information on Get With the Guidelines, visit www.americanheart.org/getwiththeguidelines.

Phelps Memorial Hospital Center is a 238-bed acute care community hospital in Sleepy Hollow with more than 1,600 employees and 475 medical staff members representing 50 medical specialties. Phelps offers one of the broadest ranges of community hospital services in Westchester. Patients benefit from distinguished physicians, many of whom are pioneers in their field, offering the most advanced procedures using the latest technology. www.phelpshospital.org