Chester County Hospital is one of three regional hospitals to have received an American Heart Association achievement award for stroke prevention.

Pennsylvania Hospital and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center also received the AHA/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award. The award recognizes the commitment and success these hospitals have had in implementing a higher standard of care for stokes, one of the leading causes of death and serious, long-term disability in the U.S.

To qualify, the three Penn Medicine hospitals achieved at least 12 consecutive months of 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality Achievement indicators, and achieved at least 75 percent or higher compliance with six of 10 Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality Measures during that same period of time. These are reporting initiatives to measure quality of care.

The measures include aggressive use of medications such as 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.

“With a stroke, time lost is brain lost, and the Get With The Guidelines – Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award demonstrates that our staff is committed to providing care that has been shown in the scientific literature to quickly and efficiently treat stroke patients with evidence-based protocols,” said Sandra Garrison, MBA, BSN, RN, director of Cardiovascular Disease Management at Chester County Hospital.

Last year, Penn Medicine hospitals saw a combined total of 1,372 stroke patients.

In addition, both the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Chester County Hospital received the association’s Target: Stroke Honor Roll, for improving stroke care.

Get With The Guidelines® is the AHA/ASA hospital-based quality improvement program to empower healthcare teams to save lives and reduce healthcare costs by following evidence-based guidelines and recommendations.