News Release

The Miriam Hospital earns 9th consecutive award for quality stroke care

Grant and Award Announcement

Lifespan

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The Miriam Hospital has again received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold-Plus Quality Achievement Award and has for the first time achieved The Target: Stroke Honor Roll distinction for 2015. The Miriam, which treats over 300 stroke patients a year, received the awards for attaining targeted quality measures and ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate medical treatment based on nationally recognized, research-based guidelines. The hospital, home to Rhode Island's first acute stroke team, has earned the Stroke Gold or Stroke Gold-Plus Award for quality stroke care annually since 2008, and this marks the sixth straight year that The Miriam has received the Stroke Gold-Plus Award.

"The Miriam Hospital has always been a specialty-focused, academic, community, and research-driven hospital," said Thomas F. Tracy, Jr., M.D., chief medical officer and senior vice president of medical affairs at The Miriam Hospital. "This quality care award affirms the success of our comprehensive care model and expert clinical team who continuously provides patients with the highest level of stroke care."

The Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke quality measures are designed to help hospitals provide the most up-to-date, evidence-based clinical guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. To qualify for The Target: Stroke Honor Roll, hospitals must meet quality measures to reduce the time between a patient's hospital arrival 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, tPA has been shown to significantly reduce the effects of stroke and lessen the chance of permanent disability if given intravenously in the first three hours after stroke symptoms start.

The Miriam earned the Target: Stroke Honor Roll by meeting specific quality achievement measures for diagnosing and treating stroke patients at a set level for a designated period. The Miriam achieved 85 percent or higher compliance with all Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke achievement measures and 75 percent or higher compliance with five or more quality measures for two or more consecutive years. The hospital also initiated thrombolytics in 60 minutes or less for 50 percent or more of applicable patients. Among other Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke prevention measures, the hospital has implemented door-to-computerized tomographic (CT) scan time to minimize the time to treatment. The Miriam is the only facility in the state to receive its eighth recognition for stroke care by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.

"We are pleased to recognize The Miriam Hospital for its commitment to stroke care," said Deepak L. Bhatt, M.D., M.P.H., national chairman of the Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke 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®-Stroke quality improvement measures can reduce length of stay and 30-day readmission rates and reduce disparities in care."

According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the number five cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the U.S. 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 The Miriam Hospital

The Miriam Hospital is a 247-bed, not-for-profit teaching hospital affiliated with The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. It offers expertise in cardiology, oncology, orthopedics, men's health, and minimally invasive surgery and is home to the state's first Joint Commission-certified Stroke Center and robotic surgery program. The hospital, which received more than $23 million in external research funding last year, is nationally known for its HIV/AIDS and behavioral and preventive medicine research, including weight control, physical activity and smoking cessation. The Miriam Hospital has been awarded Magnet Recognition for Excellence in Nursing Services five times and is a founding member of the Lifespan health system. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter (@MiriamHospital) and Pinterest.

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 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 5 million patients since 2001. For more information, visit heart.org/quality or heart.org/QualityMap.


Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.