American Heart Association recognizes Lawrence General for stroke, cardiac care

September 05, 2023
GWTG_RESUS_2023_Gold_4C.jpgBeing honored for providing excellent patient care is the best recognition a hospital can get – and Lawrence General recently received two such accolades from the American Heart Association indicating our stroke and cardiac treatment plans are top notch.

As part of the American Heart Association’s 2023 Get With the Guidelines initiatives to improve outcomes for patients who experience heart disease or stroke, Lawrence General was among several lauded with gold plus and gold awards based on treatment protocols, medical therapies and other criteria. The group determined the honors using material submitted during the 2022 calendar year.

“Patients experiencing cardiovascular events depend on efficient, coordinated care to survive,” said Joseph Wu, M.D., PhD, FAHA, volunteer president of the American Heart Association, director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute and Simon H. Stertzer, MD, Professor of Medicine and Radiology at Stanford University. “The American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines and Mission: Lifeline programs help hospitals follow the latest, research-based standards to ensure each of their patients has the best chance of survival and the highest quality of life possible.”

Lawrence General received its Resuscitation Gold (Adult) award after demonstrating it provided evidence-based care to patients who experienced an in-hospital resuscitation or received post-cardiac arrest care following a cardiac event.

GWTG_STROKE-PLUS_2023_Gold_4C.jpgThe goal of the program, according to the American Heart Association, is to “save more lives by preventing in-hospital cardiac arrest and optimizing outcomes through benchmarking, quality improvement, knowledge translation, and research.”

The Get With the Guidelines – Stroke Gold Plus honor recognizes Lawrence General’s performance over 24 consecutive months. To qualify for the award, a hospital must demonstrate compliance within seven of the Get With the Guidelines Stroke Achievement Measures in at least 85% of all eligible patients and document their findings in a written application. Achievement measures largely center around treatment plans and medications given to stroke patients.

According to the American Heart Association, stroke kills over 128,000 people each year and is a leading cause of serious, long-term disability. A patient’s outcome largely depends on how and when they receive treatment.

As a result of the Lawrence General team’s hard work to improve patient outcomes related to related to heart disease and stroke – the No. 1 and No. 5 causes of death in the United States, respectively — the hospital will be listed as Get With the Guidelines-Resuscitation Gold (Adult) and Get With the Guidelines-Stroke Gold Plus-recognized locations in the upcoming Best Hospitals issue of “U.S. News and World Reports.”