Florida Medical Center Receives American Heart Association’s Achievement Award

South Florida Caribbean NewsJune 17, 2015

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The administrative and medical teams at Florida Medical Center’s Comprehensive Stroke Center

Fort Lauderdale – Florida Medical Center earns the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines^®-Stroke Gold Quality Achievement Award with Target: Stroke^SM Honor Roll Elite Plus. The award recognizes the hospital’s commitment and success in ensuring that stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized guidelines.

To receive the Gold Quality Achievement Award, hospitals must achieve 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke achievement indicators for two or more consecutive 12-month periods. To qualify for the Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus, hospitals must meet quality measures developed to reduce the time between the patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with the clot-buster tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA. These quality measures are designed to help hospital teams provide the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients.

“Florida Medical Center has consistently proved that we are one of the best options when it comes to stroke care,” said Gabrielle Finley-Hazle, CEO of Florida Medical Center. “The team at our Comprehensive Stroke Center is dedicated to our community’s neurologic needs and I congratulate them on achieving this award.

For patients, Get With The Guidelines-Stroke uses the “teachable moment,” the time soon after a patient has had a stroke, when they learn how to manage their risk factors while still in the hospital and recognize the F.A.S.T. warning signs of a stroke.

“We are pleased to recognize Florida Medical Center for their commitment 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.

According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the number five cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the United States.