Berlin, Md.–
Atlantic General Hospital 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. Atlantic General Hospital’s
Stroke Center earned the award by meeting specific quality achievement
measures for the 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.
“Atlantic General Hospital is dedicated to improving the quality
of stroke care and The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s
Get With The Guidelines helps us achieve that goal,” said Colleen
Wareing, AGH Vice President, Patient Care Services. “With this award,
our hospital demonstrates our commitment to ensure that our patients receive
care based on internationally-respected clinical guidelines.” For
the past year Atlantic General Hospital has been offering a stroke support
group which meets monthly on the third Thursday at Atlantic Health Center.
”We are pleased to recognize Atlantic General Hospital 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 Atlantic General Hospital’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 Atlantic General Hospital
Atlantic General Hospital has been providing quality health care to the
residents of Worcester, Wicomico, Somerset (Md.) and Sussex (Del.) counties
since May 1993. Built by the commitment and generosity of a dedicated
community, the hospital’s state-of-the-art facility in Berlin, Md.,
combines old-fashioned personal attention with the latest in technology
and services. It provides quality specialty care such as weight loss surgery,
orthopedics, outpatient infusion for individuals with cancer or blood/autoimmune
disorders, retina surgery and a comprehensive women’s diagnostic
center. Atlantic General Health System, its network of more than 40 primary
care providers and specialists, care for residents and visitors throughout
the region. For more information about Atlantic General Hospital, visitwww.atlanticgeneral.org.
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 orheart.org/myhealthcare.