Mercy Hospital and Trauma Center receives award for stroke/heart failure care

JANESVILLE, WI—Mercy Hospital and Trauma Center recently received the Get With The Guidelines -Stroke Gold-Plus Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association for the treatment of stroke patients. It has also received the Heart Failure Silver-Plus Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures for heart failure patients.

Get With The Guidelines Stroke helps hospital teams provide the most up-to-date, research-based guidelines with the goals of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke and heart failure patients. Mercy Health System earned the award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients at a set level for a designated period. These measures include aggressive use of medications and risk-reduction therapies aimed at reducing death and disability and improving the lives of stroke patients.

Mercy also receives the association’s Target: Stroke/Heart Failure Honor Roll for meeting quality measures that reduce the time between hospital arrival and treatment with the clot-buster tPA, the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke. Hospitals are required to meet criteria that improves medication adherence, provides early follow-up care and coordination and enhances patient education. The goal is to reduce hospital readmissions and help patients improve their quality of life in managing this chronic condition.

For more information, visit heart.org/quality or heart.org/myhealthcare. For more information about Mercy Health System, visit MercyHealthSystem.org.