Hospitals in GWTG-Stroke program more likely to provide recommended stroke treatment

Timely stroke treatment is critical to ensuring good outcomes for patients. A new national study compared two programs designed to help hospitals adhere to nationally accepted standards and guideline recommendations for stroke treatment and found that hospitals participating in the Get With The Guidelines–Stroke program were more likely than Primary Stroke Center–certified hospitals to provide all the guideline-based measures of care for patients.   The study appears in the Oct. 14 issue of the Journal of the American Heart Association.   The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's Get With The Guidelines–Stroke (GWTG–Stroke) Performance Achievement Award (PAA) recognizes hospitals that meet specific criteria in following research-based guidelines for stroke care.   Primary Stroke Center (PSC) certification, given by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association and the Joint Commission, the entity that accredits U.S. hospitals, provides a framework for consistent clinical processes and program structure to help hospitals meet established standards of care.   The study authors, led by UCLA's Dr. Gregg Fonarow, compared quality stroke-care performance indicators for 400,707 acute ischemic patients at 1,356 hospitals between 2010 and 2012. These indicators included giving stroke patients the clot-busting drug tPA (tissue plasminogen activator) within three hours of stroke-symptom onset, blood thinners...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news