(June 28, 2012) Sellersville, PA - Grand View Hospital received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines® - Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award, its highest honor, for the third consecutive year. The award recognizes Grand View as being among the top hospitals in the nation for aggressive stroke care using evidence-based protocols for the best patient outcomes. “As time lost is brain lost with a stroke, providing quick and efficient treatment is our number one priority,” said Grand View’s Stroke Program and Vascular Care Coordinator Denise Kistler, RN, CNRN. “This quality achievement award is tangible evidence of our team’s hard work and commitment to our patients.” To receive the Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award, Grand View achieved 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines - Stroke Quality Achievement indicators for two or more consecutive 12-month intervals and achieved 75 percent or higher compliance with six of 10 Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality Measures, 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.

Members of Grand View Hospital’s heart care team recently accepted quality achievement awards for stroke and heart failure treatment from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. (Pictured front row L to R) Rebecca Wisler, telemetry RN; Denise Kistler, RN, in-patient vascular coordinator: (back row) Bill Godio, unit assistant; Lorrie Kirlin, telemetry RN; unit secretaries Margo Wensel and Robin Hager; Melissa Hardy, telemetry RN; and Elisa Hulstein, unit assistant

“Grand View is to be commended for its commitment to implementing standards of care and protocols for treating stroke patients,” said Lee H. Schwamm, MD, chair of the Get With The Guidelines National Steering Committee and director of the TeleStroke and Acute Stroke Services at Massachusetts General Hospital. “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.”

In other recognition, Grand View received the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines Silver Quality Award in Heart Failure. The award signifies that Grand View has reached an aggressive goal of treating heart failure patients with 85 percent compliance for one year to core standard levels of care outlined by the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology secondary prevention guidelines for heart failure patients.

This Get With The Guidelines quality improvement initiative provides hospital staff with tools that follow proven evidence-based guidelines and procedures in caring for heart failure patients to prevent future hospitalizations. Under the guidelines, heart failure patients are started on aggressive risk reduction therapies such as cholesterol-lowering drugs, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, aspirin, and diuretics in the hospital. They also receive counseling on alcohol/drug use and thyroid management as well as referrals for cardiac rehabilitation before being discharged.

Grand View’s Stroke and Heart Failure Treatment Program is part of the hospital’s Cardiovascular Center of Excellence, which specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of heart and vascular diseases. Using advanced techniques and equipment, the Center manages cardiovascular problems ranging from the prevention and supervision of risk factors, to the management of complex medical conditions.

The Center brings together a multi-disciplinary team that uses a collaborative approach to treatment. Areas of concentration include:

• Cardiology - Medical and Interventional
• Stroke - Stroke Prevention and Management
• Vascular Services - Surgical and Non-Surgical Interventions

About Grand View Hospital
Grand View Hospital, Bucks County’s first hospital has provided residents of Bucks and Montgomery counties with comprehensive health care services since 1913. Grand View offers a range of care ¾ particularly emphasizing the areas of cancer treatment, women's and children's health, surgery, orthopaedics, and heart and vascular care. Visit www.gvh.org for more information about the hospital, its programs, and services.

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 health care teams to save lives and reduce health care costs by helping hospitals follow evidence-based guidelines and recommendations. For more information, visit www.heart.org/quality.