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Morton Receives Double Achievement from Get With The Guidelines

Posted on 07/08/2011

Morton Hospital and Medical Center has earned “Double Achievement” from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines programs by receiving the Stroke Silver Quality Achievement Award and the Heart Failure Silver Quality Achievement Award. The awards recognize the hospital’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of stroke and heart failure care by ensuring that patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted standards and recommendations.

“With a stroke, time lost is brain lost, and the Get With The Guidelines–Stroke Silver Quality Achievement Award addresses the important element of time,” said Orla Brandos, MBA, MSN, RN, CPHQ, Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer at Morton Hospital. “Morton has developed a comprehensive system for rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients admitted to the emergency department.”

To receive the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Silver Quality Achievement Award, Morton Hospital consistently complied for at least one year with the requirements in the Get With The Guidelines–Stroke program. These include aggressive use of medications like tPA, antithrombotics, anticoagulation therapy, Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) prophylaxis, cholesterol reducing drugs and smoking cessation. This twelve-month evaluation period is the second in an ongoing self-evaluation by the hospital to continually reach the 85 percent compliance level needed to sustain this award.

“The American Stroke Association commends Morton Hospital for its success in implementing standards of care and protocols,” said Lee H. Schwamm, M.D., chair of the Get With The Guidelines National Steering Committee and director of the TeleStroke and Acute Stroke Services at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “The full implementation of acute care and secondary prevention recommendations and guidelines is a critical step in saving the lives and improving outcomes of stroke patients.”

The Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure award signifies that Morton has reached an aggressive goal of treating heart failure patients with 85 percent compliance for one year to core standard levels of care as outlined by the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology secondary prevention guidelines for heart failure patients.

Get With The Guidelines–Heart Failure helps Morton’s staff develop and implement acute and secondary prevention guideline processes. The program includes quality-improvement measures such as care maps, discharge protocols, standing orders and measurement tools. This quick and efficient use of guideline tools will enable the hospital to improve the quality of care it provides heart failure patients, save lives and ultimately, reduce healthcare costs by lowering the recurrence of heart attacks.

“Morton Hospital is dedicated to making our care for heart failure patients among the best in the country. We will continue in our efforts and build off the success of this award by continued implementation of the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines–Heart Failure program that allowed us to accomplish this goal,” said Brandos.