The Milford Regional Medical Center has been awarded the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s gold plus quality achievement for its care of stroke patients.
The Get With The Guidelines -Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award is given out to hospitals that adhere to the stroke association’s care guidelines for patients experiencing a stroke. The quality measures are designed to help hospital teams provide the most up-to- date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding the recovery process and reducing death and disability for stroke patients.
They focus on appropriate use of guideline-based care for stroke patients, including aggressive use of medications such as clot-busting and anti-clotting drugs, blood thinners and cholesterol-reducing drugs, preventive action for deep vein thrombosis and smoking cessation counseling.
“A stroke patient loses 1.9 million neurons each minute stroke treatment is delayed. This recognition further demonstrates our commitment to delivering advanced stroke treatments to patients quickly and safely,” Dr. Jeffrey Hopkins, medical director of Milford Regional’s emergency department, said in a statement.
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. On average, someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke every 40 seconds, someone dies of a stroke every four minutes, and nearly 800,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year, according to the organizations.
