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April 21, 2011

Carondelet Neurological Institute Receives National Award for Stroke Care

Carondelet Neurological Institute on the campus of St. Joseph’s Hospital, is being honored by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines program for implementing excellent stroke care for stroke patients. The Institute has received the Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award. Carondelet Neurological Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital is a Joint Commission-certified Primary Stroke Center, as is its sister facility, Carondelet St. Mary’s Hospital, which received the Get With the Guidelines-Stroke Silver Plus Award this year. Both Carondelet hospitals are being lauded by AHA/ASA for their commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of stroke care by ensuring that stroke patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted standards and recommendations.

“Our accomplishments are seen most fully in the lives we save – day in and day out,” notes Robert Goldfarb, MD, neurosurgeon and Chairman of Carondelet Neurological Institute. “These designations and awards are not the reason we do what we do, our greatest reward is caring for our patients. That’s why we’re committed to turning treatment guidelines into lifelines.”

“We have been working diligently to educate the community to think of a stroke or ‘brain attack’ in the same way they think of a heart attack, and act accordingly and immediately to seek help,” adds L. Rod Anderson, Medical Director of the Carondelet Neurological Institute’s Stroke Program. “Being honored for excellent patient care is the best recognition a hospital can receive. It reconfirms our efforts on behalf of the residents of Southern Arizona who count on us each and every day to provide great care.”

To receive the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award, Carondelet Neurological Institute achieved at least 24 consecutive months of 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality Achievement indicators and achieved at least 75 percent or higher compliance with six of 10 Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality Measures during that same period of time, which are reporting initiatives to measure quality of care. These measures include aggressive use of medications, such as tPA, antithrombotics, anticoagulation therapy, DVT prophylaxis, cholesterol reducing drugs and smoking cessation, all aimed at reducing death and disability and improving the lives of stroke patients.

“The hospitals honored with Get With The Guidelines awards are to be commended for their commitment to implementing standards of care and protocols for treating stroke patients,” said Lee H. Schwamm, M.D., chair of the Get With The Guidelines National Steering Committee and director of the TeleStroke and Acute Stroke Services at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “The full implementation of acute care and secondary prevention recommendations and guidelines is a critical step in saving the lives and improving outcomes of stroke patients.”
According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is one of the leading causes of death and serious, long-term disability in the United States. On average, someone suffers a stroke every 40 seconds; someone dies of a stroke every four minutes; and 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.

Carondelet Health Network, located in Tucson, Arizona, is a Catholic, nonprofit health care system dedicated to responding to the health care needs of Southern Arizonans. With a Mission to Heal, Carondelet was founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet 130 years ago. Carondelet Health Network facilities include Carondelet St. Mary's Hospital, Carondelet St. Joseph's Hospital, Carondelet Heart & Vascular Institute and Carondelet Neurological Institute on the campus of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tucson and Carondelet Holy Cross Hospital in Nogales, Arizona. Other Carondelet services include nearly fourteen Carondelet Medical Group primary care locations, three Carondelet Specialist Group offices, an ambulatory surgery center and various outpatient services. Carondelet Health Network is a ministry of Ascension Health, the nation's largest Catholic, non-profit health care system. In Fiscal Year 2010, Carondelet provided nearly $50 million (8.3 percent of its net revenue) in Community Benefit to improve the health of our community and increase access to health care. More information about Carondelet Health Network is available at www.carondelet.org.

About Get with The Guidelines Get With The Guidelines® is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program that empowers healthcare teams to save lives and reduce healthcare costs by helping hospitals follow evidence-based guidelines and recommendations. For more information, visit heart.org/quality.

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