CNBNews

Jefferson Health’s three New Jersey Hospitals — located in Cherry Hill, Stratford and Washington Township — have received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus and Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor RollTM awards. These awards recognize the hospitals’ commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines using the latest scientific evidence.

Jefferson Cherry Hill Hospital, Jefferson Stratford Hospital and Jefferson Washington Township Hospital each earned the Gold Plus award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients. Before discharge from the hospital, patients should also receive education, have a follow-up visit scheduled, as well as other care transition interventions.

“Our three New Jersey Hospitals have improved the quality of care for our stroke patients by implementing the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke initiative,” said Jefferson (NJ) Stroke Program Director Kathryn Donley, BSN, RN, CCRN-K, CNRN. “We are able to track and measure our success in meeting evidenced-based clinical guidelines developed to improve patient outcomes.”

All three Jefferson New Jersey hospitals also received the Association’s Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll award. To qualify for this recognition, hospitals must meet quality measures developed with more than 90% compliance for 12 consecutive months for the “Overall Diabetes Cardiovascular Initiative Composite Score.”

Additionally, Jefferson Cherry Hill Hospital received the Target: StrokeSM Elite Plus award, while Jefferson Washington Township received the Target: StrokeSM Elite award. To qualify for various Target: Stroke award levels, 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 U.S. 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.