________________________
________________________
American Heart Association Award recognizes Coast Plaza Hospital’s commitment to quality stroke care
Norwalk, Calif., August 17, 2020 – Coast Plaza Hospital (CPH) has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Silver 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.
CPH 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, any necessary follow-up visits, and information on other care transition interventions.
“This recognition reflects the hard work, dedication and phenomenal skills of our team striving to improve the quality of care for our stroke patients,” said Patrick Rafferty, CEO of Coast Plaza Hospital. “These much-needed services help us to best fulfill our mission of providing affordable, high-quality, compassionate care to our community.”
The Primary Stroke Center at CPH is certified by both the Joint Commission and The American Heart Association. Its team includes board-certified Vascular Neurologists, Neurocritical Care physicians, and a full staff with specialized training in stroke care. It has access to the latest technology, including Integrated Video Remote Interpretation (VRI) to provide telestroke examinations, and has forged a teleneurology partnership with Keck Medicine of USC.
In addition to the quality achievement award, CPH received the Association’s Target: StrokeSM Honor Roll award and the Associations Type 2 Honor Roll Award. To qualify for the stroke Honor Roll 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. To earn the Association’s Type 2 Honor Roll award, hospitals must meet quality measures developed with more than 90 % of compliance for 12 consecutive months for the “Overall Diabetes Cardiovascular Initiative Composite Score.”
“We are pleased to recognize CPH for their commitment to stroke care,” said Lee H. Schwamm, M.D., national chairperson of the Quality Oversight Committee and Executive Vice Chair of Neurology, Director of Acute Stroke Services, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. “Research has shown that hospitals adhering to clinical measures through the Get With The Guidelines quality improvement initiative can often see fewer readmissions and lower mortality rates.”
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.
For more information on the Primary Stroke Center, please call 562-868-3751. For more information about the American Heart/American Stroke Association and their awards, please visit Heart.org/GWTGQualityAwards.
