American Heart Association American Stroke Association

Norfolk, Va. (June 7, 2018) - Bon Secours DePaul Medical Center located in Norfolk, Virginia and Bon Secours Maryview Medical located in Portsmouth, Virginia received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award with Target: StrokeSM Honor Roll Elite Plus. Bon Secours Mary Immaculate Hospital, located in Newport News, Virginia received the Get With the Guidelines-Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award.

These awards recognizes Bon Secours commitment to providing the most appropriate stroke treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.

Bon Secours earned the Get with the Guidelines®-Stroke awards by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients at a set level for a designated period. These measures included 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.

To qualify for the Target: StrokeSM Honor Roll Elite Plus, Bon Secours DePaul and Maryview met 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.

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.

“The Get with The Guidelines awards are a reflection of our staff’s commitment to delivering evidence-based care that has been shown to quickly and efficiently treat stroke patients,” said Kim Warren, administrative director for Neuroscience at Bon Secours Hampton Roads. “Bon Secours continues to strive for excellence and to provide the best care for patients suffering from strokes.”

“We are pleased to recognize Bon Secours Hampton Roads for their commitment to stroke care,” said Eric E. Smith, M.D., national chairman of the Get With The Guidelines Steering Committee and an associate professor of neurology at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. “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, someone dies of a stroke every four minutes, and nearly 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.