Lehigh Valley Hospital (LVH) - Cedar Crest and LVH - Muhlenberg, LVH - Hazleton and LVH - Pocono have received the American Heart Association-American Stroke Association’s “Get With The Guidelines” Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award. LVH - Schuylkill received Silver.

The awards recognize the hospitals’ commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally-recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.

The award is earned by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients at a set level for a designated period.

These measures include evaluation of the proper use of medications and other stroke treatments aligned with the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients.

Before discharge, patients should also receive education on managing their health, get a follow-up visit scheduled, as well as other care transition interventions.

“Year after year, the American Heart Association-American Stroke Association awards LVHN hospitals high levels of recognition for stroke care,” said Steven Lewis, MD, Timothy M. Breidegam Chair and LVHN Chief of Neurology.

“We are committed to providing nothing less than the best care that our community needs, expects and deserves,” Lewis said.

LVH - Cedar Crest and LVH - Muhlenberg also received the Association’s Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite and LVH - Pocono received Target: Stroke Honor Roll. To qualify for this recognition, hospitals must meet quality measures developed to reduce the time between the patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with the clot-buster tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke.

LVH - Cedar Crest was also awarded the Target: Stroke Advanced Therapy Honor Roll award.

To receive this award, hospitals must measure Door-To-Device (DTD) times in at least 50 percent of applicable patients within 90 minutes for direct arriving and within 60 minutes for transfer.

LVH - Cedar Crest, LVH - Muhlenberg and LVH - Hazleton were also recognized for their diabetes care with the Association’s Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll. To qualify for this recognition, hospitals must meet quality measures developed with more than 90 percent of compliance for 12 consecutive months for the “Overall Diabetes Cardiovascular Initiative Composite Score.”

In October 2012, LVH - Cedar Crest became the first stroke center in Pennsylvania, and one of the first in the United States, to earn advanced certification as a Comprehensive Stroke Center by The Joint Commission and American Heart Association-American Stroke Association. This means it offers the highest standard of care for stroke and it recognizes our expert staff and their advanced training in treating patients with complex strokes.

LVH - Muhlenberg, LVH - Hazleton, LVH - Pocono and LVH - Schuylkill are certified Primary Stroke Centers. A Primary Stroke Center is a hospital that has developed special procedures to rapidly diagnose and treat a stroke emergency.

“We are pleased to recognize five LVHN hospital campuses for their commitment to stroke care,” said Lee H. Schwamm, MD, national chairperson of the Quality Oversight Committee and Executive Vice Chair of Neurology, Director of Acute Stroke Services, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Mass.

“Research has shown that hospitals adhering to clinical measures through the Get With The Guidelines quality improvement initiative can often see fewer readmissions and lower mortality rates,” Schwamm said.

According to the American Heart Association-American Stroke Association, stroke is the No. 5 cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the United States. On average, someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke every 40 seconds and nearly 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.

Information: www.heart.org/quality