American Heart Association Award recognizes Stony Brook Medicine’s commitment to quality stroke care

Stony Brook University Hospital Receives Get With The Guidelines® Stroke Gold Plus with Target: Stroke Elite Plus Honor Roll and Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll

and

 Stony Brook Southampton Hospital Receives Get With The Guidelines® Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award with Honor Roll Elite and Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll

 

stroke team

 

STONY BROOK, NY, October 26, 2021 Stony Brook University Hospital received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Gold Plus Get With The Guidelines® - Stroke Award with Target: Stroke Elite Plus Honor Roll and Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll. Stony Brook Southampton Hospital received the Gold Plus Get With The Guidelines® - Stroke Quality Achievement Award with Honor Roll Elite and Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll. These awards recognize Stony Brook Medicine’s commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.

Stony Brook University Hospital and Stony Brook Southampton Hospital each earned these awards 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 evaluation of the proper use of medications and other stroke treatments aligned with the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing mortality and disability for stroke patients. Before discharge, patients should also receive education on managing their health, scheduling a follow-up visit, as well as other care transition interventions. For recognition criteria visit this link.

"I am proud to join a healthcare system worthy of the American Heart and Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines® award," said Hal Paz, MD, Executive Vice President, Health Sciences, Stony Brook University. "These designations show Stony Brook Medicine's commitment to delivering the best possible care to stroke patients across Long Island."

"We're proud to have received these awards for so many consecutive years and glad to have helped improve the health outcomes of thousands of stroke patients by implementing the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke initiative," says Michael Guido, MD, Director of the Stony Brook Neurology Stroke Program and Co-Director of the Stony Brook Cerebrovascular and Stroke Center at Stony Brook Medicine. "Our success is a result of Stony Brook Medicine's dedicated team of nurses, technicians, radiology staff and physicians, mobile stroke unit EMTs, and other medical specialists in addition to neurologists and neurosurgeons."

In May 2018, Stony Brook University Hospital became the first hospital in Suffolk County to achieve Comprehensive Stroke Center (CSC) certification by The Joint Commission, the nation's oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care. This is the highest level a stroke center can achieve, and involves a rigorous screening process. The advanced Comprehensive Stroke Center designation indicates our ability to receive and treat the most complex stroke cases. As a certified comprehensive stroke center, Stony Brook provides nationally recognized best practices and a level of care few hospitals anywhere can match. 

The following year, Stony Brook Medicine launched Long Island’s first and only Mobile Stroke Unit Program designed to provide specialized, life-saving care to people within the critical moments of stroke before they even get to the hospital. This allows for time-sensitive stroke therapies to be administered earlier and allows for the transport of stroke patients directly to the most appropriate hospital for the level of care they require.

Stony Brook University Hospital was also named as one of America's 100 Best HospitalsTM by Healthgrades for stroke care for the past seven years, from 2016 to 2022.

Stony Brook Southampton Hospital has met specific guidelines set by the New York State Stroke Designation Program to be recognized as a Primary Stroke Center. The Audrey and Martin Gruss Heart & Stroke Center is capable of treating acute ischemic stroke with IV t-PA and provides patients comprehensive supportive care.

“We are dedicated to improving the quality of care for our stroke patients by implementing the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke initiative,” said Fredric I. Weinbaum, MD, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Operating Officer, Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. “The tools and resources provided help us track and measure our success in meeting evidenced-based clinical guidelines developed to improve patient outcomes.” 

“We are pleased to recognize Stony Brook Southampton Hospital for their commitment to stroke care,” said Lee H. Schwamm, M.D., national chairperson of the American Heart Association’s Quality Oversight Committee and Executive Vice Chair of Neurology, Director of Acute Stroke Services, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. “Research has shown that hospitals adhering to clinical measures through the Get With The Guidelines quality improvement initiative can often see fewer readmissions and lower mortality rates.”

According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the No. 5 cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the United States. On average, someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke every 40 seconds and nearly 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.

About Stony Brook University Hospital:

Stony Brook University Hospital (SBUH) is Long Island’s premier academic medical center. With 624 beds, SBUH serves as the region’s only tertiary care center and Regional Trauma Center, and is home to the Stony Brook University Heart Institute, Stony Brook Cancer Center, Stony Brook Children’s Hospital and Stony Brook University Neurosciences Institute. SBUH also encompasses Suffolk County’s only Level 4 Regional Perinatal Center, state-designated AIDS Center, state-designated Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program, state-designated Burn Center, the Christopher Pendergast ALS Center of Excellence, and Kidney Transplant Center. It is home of the nation’s first Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Center. To learn more, visit https://www.stonybrookmedicine.edu/sbuh.

About Stony Brook Southampton Hospital:

With 124 beds, Stony Brook Southampton Hospital (SBSH) is staffed by more than 280 physicians, dentists, and allied health professionals representing 48 medical specialties. A campus of Stony Brook University Hospital, SBSH offers a diverse array of clinical services, ranging from primary medical care to specialized surgical procedures, including cardiac catheterization, orthopedics and bariatrics. The sole provider of emergency care on Long Island’s South Fork, Stony Brook Southampton Hospital is a provisional Level III adult Trauma Center. The hospital includes The Phillips Family Cancer Center, a Heart and Stroke Center, Breast Health Center, The Center for Advanced Wound Healing, Wellness Institute, and 32 satellite care centers throughout the South Fork of Long Island. The hospital is the largest employer on the South Fork with more than 1,200 employees. To learn more, visit www.southampton.stonybrookmedicine.edu.

About Get With The Guidelines®

Get With The Guidelines® is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines® is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program that provides hospitals with tools and resources to increase adherence to 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 9 million patients since 2001. For more information, visitheart.org/quality.

 

Photo 1 courtesy of Stony Brook University Hospital

Photo 2 courtesy of Stony Brook Southampton Hospital by Amanda Mullin

Caption: From Left: (First row) Monina Baldo, RN; Lisa Dellipizzi, RN; Deborah O’Brien, RN; Samantha Pullium, RN (Second Row) Rose Paul, RN; Dr. Darin Wiggins, MD; Janet Woo, RN; Catherine Baccelliere, RN;  Olga McAbee, MD