Comprehensive Stroke Center at RWJUH Honored By American Heart Association for Excellence in Stroke Care

Friday, May 22, 2009

From left to right: Lori Barhorst, MHA, OTR/L, Director of Quality Improvement Initiatives-New Jersey for the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, presents Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) President and CEO Stephen K. Jones, FACHE, with the silver “Get with the Guidelines” award for consistent excellence in stroke care. Also accepting the award are Subasini Dash, MD, Assistant Professor of Neurology for UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS) and Interim Medical Director of the Comprehensive Stroke Center at RWJUH; and Suhayl Dhib-Jalbut, MD, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurology, UMDNJ-RWJMS.

The American Heart Association and American Stroke Association recently presented Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) with the “Get with the Guidelines Silver Award (GWTG)” for achievement in stroke care. RWJUH earned the prestigious designation for consistently maintaining an 85 percent or better compliance rate for seven stroke care measures over a one-year period.

“We are extremely pleased that all of the hard work and commitment to improving our stroke care practices has paid off with this award,” said Subasini Dash, MD, Assistant Professor of Neurology at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Interim Medical Director of Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital’s Comprehensive Stroke Center. “Achieving this status was the result of a focused, multidisciplinary effort by our entire stroke care team to deliver the best care possible to patients who have suffered a stroke.”

To earn GWTG Silver status, RWJUH consistently followed the program’s recommended treatment guidelines, which include providing aggressive use of IV tPA (a clot-busting drug) antithrombotics by the end of hospital day two and at discharge, anticoagulation therapy to patients with atrial fibrillation, DVT prophylaxis, cholesterol-reducing drugs, and smoking cessation counseling to all appropriate patients who had suffered an acute stroke for one year.

At RWJUH’s state-designated comprehensive stroke center, an interdisciplinary Stroke Center Steering Committee meets monthly to review stroke care response and practices with an eye toward enhancing the hospital’s overall performance in stroke care. The committee has initiated improvements such as a “brain attack” overhead page to ensure that the hospital’s stroke care team is assembled as quickly as possible once hospital staff is alerted that a stroke patient is on the way. The team also works closely with emergency medical service crews on educational programs to help them quickly identify early stroke symptoms.

“There is an entire chain of events that needs to occur rapidly when we receive a brain attack call,” explained Virginia Roberts, RN, Director of RWJUH’s Comprehensive Stroke Center. “For example, the CAT-scan area needs to be cleared, the lab needs to be aware that we will require immediate blood work analysis with expedited results, and the doctor needs to be ready for the patient’s arrival in the emergency department.”

The Comprehensive Stroke Center at RWJUH has received the Gold Seal of Approval from the Joint Commission. To earn and maintain this certification, the Stroke Center embarked on an extensive on-site review by Joint Commission professionals to assure the deployment of rapid-response stroke treatment teams; the operation of designated inpatient stroke care units staffed by qualified stroke caregivers; the use of comprehensive, written stroke care protocols; the existence of an integrated system for managing stroke patients; compliance with professional standards and a firm commitment from administrators as well as clinicians to provide up-to-date community education about stroke risks, symptoms and treatment.

The GWTG-Stroke program encourages performance improvement efforts and enhanced patient education to help hospitals improve all aspects of stroke care. GWTG-Stroke uses “the teachable moment,” the time soon after a patient has had a stroke, when they are most likely to listen and follow their health care professionals’ guidance. Studies demonstrate that patients who are taught how to manage their risk factors while still in the hospital reduce their risk of a second stroke. Through GWTG-Stroke, customized patient education materials are made available at the point of discharge, based on patients’ individual risk profiles. The take-away materials are written in an easy-to-understand format and are available in both English and Spanish. In addition the GWTG Patient Management Tool provides access to up-to-date cardiovascular and stroke science at the point of care.

According to the American Stroke Association, each year approximately 700,000 people suffer a stroke—500,000 are first attacks and 200,000 are recurrent attacks. Of stroke survivors, 21 percent of men and 24 percent of women die within a year, and for those aged 65 and older, the percentage is even higher.

About Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital

Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) is a 600-bed academic medical center and the principal hospital of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, NJ. Robert Wood Johnson is an innovative leader in advancing state-of-the-art care. RWJUH is the first hospital in the nation to implant the AbioCor self-contained artificial heart since the device received FDA approval in 2006. RWJUH is one of only three sites in the nation approved to offer this groundbreaking technology. Its Centers of Excellence include cardiovascular care from minimally invasive heart surgery to transplantation, cancer care, and women’s and children’s care including The Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (www.bmsch.org). The hospital is also a Level 1 Trauma Center and serves as a national resource in its ground-breaking approaches to emergency preparedness. The hospital has earned significant national recognition for clinical quality and patient safety. Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital is ranked among the top 50 hospitals in the nation for heart and heart surgery (No. 36), cancer (No. 40) respiratory disorders (No. 50), according to U.S.News & World Report’s 2009 ranking of “America’s Best Hospitals.” The American College of Surgeons’ Commission on Cancer has rated RWJUH among the nation's best comprehensive cancer centers. The Leapfrog Group rated RWJUH as one of the 50 exceptional U.S. hospitals, as published in Consumers Digest magazine. Harvard University researchers, in a study commissioned by The Commonwealth Fund, identified RWJUH as one of the top 10 hospitals in the nation for clinical quality. RWJUH is also a recipient of the prestigious Magnet Award for Nursing Excellence for more than 10 consecutive years. Visit us online at www.rwjuh.edu.

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