HHC Kings County Hospital Center Receives National Recognition for Excellence in Stroke Care

Jun 09, 2015

Brooklyn, New York

Ernest Baptiste, Executive Director of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) Kings County Hospital Center (KCHC), announced today the hospital has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s “Get With The Guidelines”® Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award. This is the fourth consecutive year the hospital has been recognized for its success in ensuring stroke patients receive the highest quality care according to nationally recognized guidelines.

“I commend our highly skilled medical team for the extraordinary work they do daily to ensure that the care provided to stroke patients is of the highest quality, meeting established guidelines and protocols,” said Mr. Baptiste. “Our community deserves no less and we are proud to have a state-of-the-art stroke center that renders life-saving treatment for our patients and community at large.”
To receive the Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award, hospitals must achieve 85 percent or higher adherence to all seven Get With The Guidelines-Stroke achievement indicators for two or more consecutive years, and must achieve 75 percent or higher compliance with five of eight Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality measures.
These quality measures are designed to help hospital teams provide the most up-to-date, evidence-based care with the goal of improving recovery, as well as reducing death and disability for stroke patients. Guidelines include aggressive use of medications such as clot-busting and anti-clotting drugs, and blood thinners. In addition, the guidelines promote prompt and effective use of cholesterol-reducing drugs, preventive action for deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and smoking cessation counseling. Stroke centers proactively manage other stroke risks such as hypertension and diabetes.
“We collaborate closely with our Emergency Department nurses to facilitate improved work flow when patients present with acute stroke,” said Dr. Susan Law, Director of KCHC Stroke Services. “Early recognition of the warning signs of a stroke is key to prompt diagnosis and treatment. Our goal is provide treatment effectively and as quickly as possible upon arrival in the emergency room.”
“As a major safety net hospital for Brooklyn, a Level 1 Trauma Center and a designated Stroke Center, we are committed to continuous improvement in the early diagnosis of stroke patients so that we can help them achieve the best possible outcomes,” said Ghassan Jamaleddine, MD, Chief Medical Officer, KCHC. “The AHA stroke guidelines are an important tool in this process.”
“This award demonstrates our ongoing commitment to ensuring that patients receive care based on nationally-respected clinical guidelines,” said Helen Valsamis, MD, Chief of Neurology at KCHC. “Kings County Hospital is dedicated to improving the quality of stroke care for our patients through community outreach and the development of a robust stroke research program.”
According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, in 2014 stroke dropped from the third leading cause of death to fifth, due to the use of guidelines to improve stroke care.

Contact: Adele Flateau, (718) 245-3910 Ian Michaels,(212) 788-3339

About NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County

NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County is a 627-bed facility that serves the communities of Central Brooklyn, East New York-New Lots and Flatbush. A teaching hospital, it is part of the NYC Health + Hospitals health care system. The hospital is a Level I Trauma Center for Adults and the only Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center in Brooklyn. It is a NYSDOH Designated AIDS Center; a Stroke Center; and has also been designated as a Center of Excellence for Diabetes and for Parkinson Disease. The hospital has played a major role in providing health care to vulnerable populations in Brooklyn since 1831. For more information visit nychealthandhospitals.org/kingscounty.

About NYC Health + Hospitals

The NYC Health + Hospitals health care system is a $6.7 billion integrated healthcare delivery system, the largest municipal healthcare organization in the country, and one of the New York area’s largest providers of government-sponsored health insurance, MetroPlusHealth Health Plan, the plan of choice for nearly half a million New Yorkers. The NYC Health + Hospitals health care system serves 1.4 million New Yorkers every year and more than 475,000 are uninsured. The system provides medical, mental health and substance abuse services through its 11 acute care hospitals, five skilled nursing facilities, six large diagnostic and treatment centers and more than 70 community based clinics. NYC Health + Hospitals/Home Care also provides in-home services for New Yorkers. The NYC Health + Hospitals system was the 2008 recipient of the National Quality Forum and The Joint Commission’s John M. Eisenberg Award for Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org or find us on https://www.facebook.com/NYCHealthSystem or twitter.com/NYCHealthSystem.

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