Advocate Good Shepherd honored with award for stroke care

Advocate Good Shepherd 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. Good Shepherd Hospital 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.

"Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital 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 Dr. Sunil Kadakia, chief of Cardiology at Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital. "With this award, our hospital demonstrates our commitment to ensure that our patients receive care based on internationally-respected clinical guidelines."

Get With The Guidelines - Stroke also helps Good Shepherd 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.

"Recognition of our efforts from a nationally regarded stroke awareness and prevention organization is confirmation of our commitment to offering the latest protocols and complying with evidence-based standards of care," said Dr. Barry Bikshorn, Neurology medical director at Good Shepherd Hospital.

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.