Thursday, December 27, 2007 10:45 AM -0500

Charleston Area Medical Center has earned the American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke (GWTG-Stroke) Bronze Performance Achievement Award. The award recognizes CAMC’s commitment to implementing a higher standard of stroke care by ensuring that stroke patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted standards and recommendations. CAMC is the first medical center in West Virginia to receive this designation.

“With a stroke, time lost is brain lost, and the GWTG–Stroke Bronze Performance Achievement Award addresses improved processes to decrease the ‘time element,’” said Deb Rectenwald, CAMC’s stroke program coordinator. “CAMC has developed a comprehensive system for rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients admitted to the emergency department. This includes being equipped 24 hours a day, seven days a week to provide brain imaging scans, having neurologists available to conduct patient evaluations and using clot-busting medications when appropriate.”

To receive the award, CAMC consistently followed the treatment guidelines in the GWTG–Stroke program for 90 days. These include aggressive use of medications such as tPA, antithrombotics, anticoagulation therapy, DVT prophylaxis and cholesterol reducing drugs. Patients also receive counseling for smoking cessation. The 90-day evaluation period is the first in an ongoing self-evaluation by the hospital to continually reach the 85 percent compliance level needed to sustain this award. Since the program’s inception CAMC has seen dramatic increases in performance related to guideline adherence and patient care.

"The full implementation of acute and secondary prevention guidelines is a critical step in improving stroke care," said Harry Reahl, MD, medical director of the CAMC Stroke Center. "We have implemented evidence-based guidelines for care and education, along with protocols that are based on American Heart Association/American Stroke Association Guidelines for Stroke Care.”

GWTG–Stroke uses the “teachable moment,” the time soon after a patient has had a stroke, when they are most likely to listen to and follow their health care professionals’ guidance. Studies demonstrate that patients who are taught how to manage their risk factors while still in the hospital reduce their risk of a second stroke. Through GWTG–Stroke, customized patient education materials are made available at the point of discharge, based on patients’ individual risk profiles.

“We are dedicated to making our stroke program among the best in the country, and the American Heart Association’s ‘Get With The Guidelines’ program is helping us accomplish that by making it easier for our professionals to improve the long-term outcomes of our patients,” said Mike Williams, vice president/administrator of CAMC General Hospital.

According to the American Heart Association, each year more than 700,000 people suffer a stroke; 200,000 of which are second strokes. The American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines – Stroke program is being implemented in hospitals around the country.