Pictured (left to right): Michelle Stoneham, American Heart Association; Becky Pierce, NorthCrest Emergency Department Coordinator; Elizabeth Clinard, NorthCrest Emergency Department Educator; Jessica Meredith, NorthCrest Stroke Program Coordinator; Randy Davis, NorthCrest President & CEO; and Angie Beard, NorthCrest Chief Nursing Officer.
NorthCrest Honored with Quality Achievement Award for Stroke Care
SPRINGFIELD TENNESSEE: (Smokey Barn News) – NorthCrest Medical Center has 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. 
Get With The Guidelines Stroke helps hospital teams provide the most up-to-date, research-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. NorthCrest 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.
“NorthCrest is dedicated to improving the quality of stroke care and The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines–Stroke helps us achieve that goal,” said Randy Davis, President and CEO of NorthCrest Medical Center. “With this award, our hospital demonstrates our commitment to ensure that our patients receive care based on internationally-respected clinical guidelines.”
“We are pleased to recognize NorthCrest for their commitment and dedication to stroke care,” said Deepak L. Bhatt, M.D., M.P.H., national chairman of the Get With The Guidelines steering committee and Executive Director of Interventional Cardiovascular Programs at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “Studies have shown that hospitals that consistently follow Get With The Guidelines quality improvement measures can reduce patients’ length of stays and 30-day readmission rates and reduce disparity gaps in care.”
Get With The Guidelines–Stroke also helps NorthCrest’s staff implement prevention measures, which include educating stroke patients to manage their risk factors and to be aware of warning signs for stroke, and ensuring they take their medications properly. Hospitals can make customized patient education materials available upon discharge, based on the patients’ individual risk profiles. The take-away materials are written in an easy-to-understand format in either English or Spanish.
According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the number four cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the United States. On average, someone suffers a stroke every 40 seconds; someone dies of a stroke every four minutes; and 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.
About NorthCrest NorthCrest Medical Center, a not-for-profit community hospital, has been providing compassionate, quality healthcare since 1956. With a mission of enhancing community and patient wellness, NorthCrest provides inpatient, outpatient, and emergency medical services to Northern Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky.
NorthCrest Medical Center is recognized as an “A” Hospital by The Leapfrog Group. The Joint Commission recently recognized NorthCrest for the third consecutive year as a top performer on key quality measures concerning the treatment of heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, and surgical care and has awarded NorthCrest with advanced certification for primary stroke centers. NorthCrest has also been named an exemplar hospital by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. For more information about physicians and services offered by NorthCrest Medical Center, call the NorthCrest HealthLine at 615/384-1600 or visit them at www.northcrest.com.
About Get With The Guidelines
Get With The Guidelines® is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program that provides hospitals with the latest research-based guidelines. Developed with the goal of saving lives and hastening recovery, Get With The Guidelines has touched the lives of more than 4 million patients since 2001. For more information, visit heart.org/quality or heart.org/myhealthcare.
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