Plainview Hospital Receives Award

The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award was given to Plainview Hospital. This award recognizes the hospital’s success in providing the highest standards of stroke care in accordance with evidence-based treatment guidelines.

In order to receive this award Plainview Hospital has achieved 24 consecutive months of 85 percent or higher adherence to all stroke performance achievement indicators. All of the protocols are designed to reduce death and disability, and to improve the lives of stroke patients.

According to Alan Kaplan, M.D., who is the director of Plainview Hospital’s Stroke Unit, “With a stroke, time lost is brain lost.” Plainview Hospital is a New York State designated stroke center and they have a multidisciplinary stroke team available 24 hours a day in order to assess and treat stroke patients.

Strokes are one of the leading causes of death and serious, long term disability in the United States, according to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. There is an average of someone suffering from a stroke every 40 seconds, every four minutes someone dies from a stroke and 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke every year.  They are expecting these numbers to grow over the next decade due to increasing stroke incidence and an aging population.

The Get With The Guidelines Stroke uses the time soon after a patient has had a stroke, when they are more likely to listen to teach them to follow their healthcare professional’s advice. According to studies, patients who are taught how to manage their risk factors while they are still in the hospital can reduce their risk of a second heart attack or stroke.

When patients are discharged from Plainview Hospital, they are provided with materials that are customized and based on their risk profiles.

For more information about Get With The Guidelines, visit www.heart.org/quality or for information on stroke prevention and treatment visit http://www.northshorelij.com/NSLIJ/Neurovascular+and+Stroke+Institue.