Rockdale Medical Center has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Bronze Quality Achievement Award and the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Silver Quality Achievement Award with Target: StrokeSM Honor Roll. The awards recognize the hospital’s commitment and success, ensuring that stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.
To receive the Bronze Quality Achievement award, hospitals must achieve 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke achievement indicators for one calendar quarter. To receive the Silver Quality Achievement award, hospitals must achieve 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke achievement indicators for at least 12 consecutive months.
To qualify for the Target: Stroke Honor Roll, 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. If given intravenously in the first three hours after the start of stroke symptoms, tPA has been shown to significantly reduce the effects of stroke and lessen the chance of permanent disability. Rockdale Medical Center 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 quality measures are designed to help hospital teams follow the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. They focus on appropriate use of guideline-based care for stroke patients, including aggressive use of medications such as clot-busting and anti-clotting drugs, blood thinners and cholesterol-reducing drugs, and preventive action for deep vein thrombosis and smoking cessation counseling.
RMC has also received the Mission: Lifeline® Bronze Receiving Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association for the treatment of patients who suffer severe heart attacks.
The American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline program’s goal is to reduce system barriers to prompt treatment for heart attacks, beginning with the 9-1-1 call and continuing through hospital treatment.
In addition to receiving the Mission: Lifeline Bronze Receiving award, Rockdale Medical Center has also been recognized as a recipient of Mission: Lifeline’s Bronze-Plus award, which recognizes the hospital has reached an achievement score of 75 percent or greater for treating STEMI transfer patients within 120 minutes for at least one quarter.
RMC earned the award by meeting specific criteria and standards of performance for the quick and appropriate treatment of STEMI patients by providing emergency procedures to re-establish blood flow to blocked arteries when needed. Eligible hospitals must adhere to these measures at a set level for at least one consecutive 90 day interval.
About Rockdale Medical Center
Rockdale Medical Center, part of LifePoint Health, is committed to Making Communities Healthier®. A 138-bed, acute-care facility, Rockdale Medical Center offers a wide range of services including inpatient and outpatient services and leading-edge technology. Rockdale Medical Center is fully accredited by The Joint Commission which evaluates hospital patient care for quality, safety and value. For more information about Rockdale Medical Center, please visit www.rockdalemedicalcenter.org. For more information about LifePoint Health, visit www.LifePointHealth.net.
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 Mission: Lifeline
The American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline program helps hospitals and emergency medical services develop systems of care that follow proven standards and procedures for STEMI patients. The program works by mobilizing teams across the continuum of care to implement American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology Foundation clinical treatment guidelines. For more information, visit heart.org.
