(July 29, 2011) 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 second 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.

“With a stroke, time lost is brain lost,” said Grand View’s stroke program and vascular care coordinator Denise Kistler, RN, CNRN. “Receiving quick and efficient treatment is essential. Following Get With The Guidelines protocols helps us provide exceptional stroke care here at Grand View.”

Some of the measures Grand View has implemented 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.

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.

“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 Bronze Quality Award in Heart Failure. The award signifies that Grand View has reached an aggressive goal of treating heart failure patients for at least 90 days with 85 percent compliance 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. They also receive counseling on nutrition, smoking cessation, salt reduction, fluid intake monitoring, and other health topics.

“The full implementation of national heart failure guideline recommended care is an important step in preventing recurrent hospitalizations and prolonging the lives of heart failure patients,” said Dr. Schwamm of the Get With The Guidelines National Steering Committee. “Published scientific studies are providing us with more and more evidence that Get With The Guidelines works. Patients are getting the right care they need when they need it. That’s resulting in improved survival.”

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 – 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.