CentraState receives award for quality care for stroke patients

CentraState Medical Center has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award. The award recognizes 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.

CentraState 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 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.

“When a patient is experiencing stroke symptoms, every second counts when expediting all aspects of care and therapeutics to prevent or limit damage to brain tissue,” says Ellen Ciacciarelli, RN, APN, stroke coordinator, CentraState Healthcare System. “We are proud of this recognition and will continue our commitment to providing care that has been shown in the scientific literature to quickly and efficiently save the lives and improve outcomes of stroke patients.”

CentraState also received the association’s Target: StrokeSM Honor Roll Elite award. To qualify for this recognition, hospitals must meet quality measures developed to reduce the time between the patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with the clot-buster tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke.

According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the No. 5 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.

CentraState Medical Center is an Advanced Primary Stroke Center with licensed certification from the Joint Commission and the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. CentraState is among an elite group of hospitals in New Jersey and across the country with a specially trained “Code Stroke” response team which includes an Emergency Department (ED) physician, neurologist, ED registered nurse, and a stroke coordinator, all of whom have special training in caring for stroke patients. The team is available around the clock to assess patients immediately upon their arrival at CentraState’s Emergency Department and initiate appropriate treatment, which may include the administration of a “clot busting” medication. For more information about CentraState’s Stroke Center, call 866-CENTRA7 (866-236-8727) or visit centrastate.com/stroke.

About Get With The Guidelines
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. Developed with the goal of saving lives and hastening recovery, Get With The Guidelines has touched the lives of more than 6 million patients since 2001. For more information, visit heart.org.

About CentraState Healthcare System
Healthcare System is a nonprofit community health organization consisting of an acute-care hospital, a health and wellness campus, three senior living communities, a Family Medicine Residency Program, and a charitable foundation. CentraState’s teaching program is sponsored by Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.