Gold Plus Recognition

St. John's Episcopal Hospital has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's Get With The Guidelines^®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award. The award recognizes the hospital's commitment and success in ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.

To receive the Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award, hospitals must achieve 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke achievement indicators for two or more consecutive 12-month periods and achieved 75 percent or higher compliance with five of eight Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality measures.

These quality measures are designed to help hospital teams provide the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. They focus on appropriate use of guideline-based care for stroke patients, including aggressive use of medications such as clot-busting and anti-clotting drugs, blood thinners and cholesterol-reducing drugs, preventive action for deep vein thrombosis and smoking cessation counseling.

"Hospitals receiving Get With The Guidelines Gold Plus Achievement Award have reached an aggressive goal of treating (heart failure or stroke) patients with 85 percent or higher compliance to core standard levels of care as outlined by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association for 12 consecutive months. In addition, those hospitals have demonstrated 75 percent compliance to (four out of nine heart failure quality measures or seven out of ten stroke quality measures) during the 12-month period."