Hackensack Meridian Health Raritan Bay Medical Center-Old Bridge and Raritan Bay Medical Center-Perth Amboy recently received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s (AHA/ASA) Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award. The award recognizes the hospitals’ commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.
“Raritan Bay Medical Center is dedicated to improving the quality of care for our stroke patients by implementing the AHA’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke initiative. The tools and resources provided help us track and measure our success in meeting evidenced-based clinical guidelines developed to improve patient outcomes,” said Eric Uhrik, D.O., medical director, Stroke Center at Raritan Bay Medical Center.
The Silver Plus Award adds to Raritan Bay’s stroke care quality recognitions which also include New Jersey Department of Health designation as a Primary Stroke Center, The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval and the AHA’s Heart-Check mark for Advanced Certification for Primary Stroke Centers.
“These recognitions mean that patients can feel very confident they will receive expert care at Raritan Bay when suffering from stroke,” Dr. Uhrik said.
Raritan Bay 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, get a follow-up visit scheduled, as well as other care transition interventions.
Raritan Bay also received the association’s Target: StrokeSM Honor Roll Award. To qualify for this recognition, Raritan Bay 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 (TpA), the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke.
Stroke care is a priority for Hackensack Meridian Health with nine network hospitals receiving the AHA/ASA’s Stroke Gold Plus award, including Hackensack University Medical Center; Jersey Shore University Medical Center; Mountainside Medical Center; Ocean Medical Center; Palisades Medical Center; Riverview Medical Center; JFK Medical Center; Bayshore Medical Center, and Southern Ocean Medical Center.
According to the AHA/ASA, 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.
