American Heart/Stroke Association recognizes Cooper’s commitment to quality stroke care
Cooper University Health Care, part of an elite group of nationally designated Primary Stroke Centers, earned the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award with Target: Stroke
Cooper University Health Care, part of an elite group of nationally designated Primary Stroke Centers, earned the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award with Target: StrokeSM Honor Roll. This advanced recognition reinforces Cooper’s commitment to providing the most appropriate and effective treatment for stroke according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines that form the foundation for the Get With The Guideline-Stroke quality improvement program .
“Achieving Gold Plus along with Target Honor Roll underscores Cooper’s multidisciplinary stroke team’s devotion to provide the highest standard of care, including diagnosis, prevention, and treatment, for patients with stroke, quickly and safely, at a moment’s notice,” said Ryna K. Then, MD, director of the Inpatient Stroke Program.
To receive the Gold Plus award, hospitals must achieve 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke achievement indicators for two or more consecutive years and achieve 75 percent or higher compliance with five of eight Get With The Guidelines-Stroke quality measures.
Along with the Gold recognition, Cooper met additional quality measures developed to reduce the time between the patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with the only U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved drug (tissue plasminogen activator or tPA) to treat a clot-caused (ischemic) stroke. If given intravenously in the first three hours after the start of symptoms, tPA has been shown to significantly reduce the effects of stroke and lessen the chance of permanent disability.
“We’ve known that when it comes to stroke, time matters, and how quickly a patient gets the right medical attention can be the difference between life and death and/or his or her future quality of life,” Dr. Then noted. “Whether its tPA, surgical intervention, or a new treatment approach that aligns with The Get With The Guidelines-Stroke initiative, Cooper’s fast-acting, experienced team continually strives to advance our care even further.”
According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the fifth 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 800,000 people have a new or recurrent stroke each year. Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke was developed with the goal to save lives and improve recovery time. Since 2003, it has impacted more than 3 million patients.
About the Cooper Neurological Institute
Cooper has one of the most progressive patient- and family-centered neurological centers in the region, offering the most advanced system on the East Coast for noninvasive treatment for brain disorders. The Cooper Neurological Institute (CNI) is dedicated to providing exceptional and compassionate care to patients with neurological diseases and disorders and to applying innovative and promising solutions, from surgery and minimally invasive procedures of the brain and spine, to radiosurgery and magnetic resonance imaging systems. The medical staff at the CNI includes renowned neurologists, neurosurgeons, physiatrists, and many other sub-specialists.
Wendy A. Marano
Public Relations Manager
marano-wendy@cooperhealth.edu
Office: 856.382.6463
Cell: 856.904.1688