Owensboro Health Regional Hospital has received the American Heart Association’s GoldPlus Get With The Guidelines – Stroke Quality Achievement Award. This honor is for the commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized guidelines, ultimately leading to more lives saved and reduced disability.
OHRH received the Get With The Guidelines – Stroke award with Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll. This award aims to ensure patients with Type 2 diabetes, who might be at higher risk for complications, receive the most up-to-date, evidence-based care when hospitalized due to stroke.
“The stroke team continuously reviews our processes and protocols to ensure that our work meets the needs of our patients and their loved ones,” said Tabitha Drane, Owensboro Health Clinical Program Specialist. “We use evidenced-based care to improve patient outcomes and decrease complications of stroke. The end goal is to ensure more people in Owensboro can experience longer, healthier lives.”
The recognition comes from a team effort.
“Our stroke team is proud of the work that we do day in and day out with our stroke patients,” Drane said. “Stroke care is truly interdisciplinary — from rapid triage, assessment and intervention in the emergency department — to early acute care and therapy in the hospital and then rehabilitation. To be recognized for this on a national level is a great honor for all involved.”
Stroke is the fifth-leading cause of death, and a leading cause of disability in the United States. A stroke occurs when a blood vessel that carries oxygen and nutrients to the brain is either blocked by a clot or bursts. When that happens, part of the brain cannot get the blood and oxygen it needs, so brain cells die. Early stroke detection and treatment are key to improving survival, minimizing disability, and accelerating recovery times.
Get With The Guidelines – Stroke is an in-hospital program for improving stroke care by promoting consistent adherence to these guidelines, which can minimize the long-term effects of a stroke and even prevent death.
Each year, program participants qualify for the award by demonstrating how their organization has committed to providing quality care for stroke patients.
“We are incredibly pleased to recognize Owensboro Health Regional Hospital for its commitment to caring for patients with stroke,” said Steven Messe, M.D., chairperson of the Stroke System of Care Advisory Group. “Participation in Get With The Guidelines is associated with improved patient outcomes, fewer readmissions and lower mortality rates – a win for health care systems, families and communities.”
The OHRH stroke care team was also recently recognized by U.S. News & World Report, the global authority in hospital rankings and consumer advice. The organization named Owensboro Health Regional Hospital a 2022-2023 “High Performing Hospital” (the highest rating available) for the care of strokes, as well as heart attacks, COPD, and kidney failure.
