Dignity Health St. Mary's Medical Center Honored with Quality Achievement Award for Stroke Care

SAN FRANCISCO, July 28, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Dignity Health St. Mary's Medical Center announced today that it has received the Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Silver-Plus Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association for the treatment of stroke patients. Stroke is the number four cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the United States, according to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.

Get With The Guidelines-Stroke helps hospital teams provide the most up-to-date, research-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. St. Mary's earned the award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients. These measures include aggressive use of medications and risk-reduction therapies aimed at reducing death and disability and improving the lives of stroke patients.

"St. Mary's remains dedicated to improving the quality of our stroke care, and this helps us achieve that goal," said Anna Cheung, president of Dignity Health St. Mary's Medical Center. "We are very proud of the many awards we have received for our outstanding stroke care, and the Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award is another recognition of our staff's commitment to quality and safety."

The Stroke Center at St. Mary's is one of the region's most highly decorated centers of its kind. It has been certified as a Primary Stroke Center by The Joint Commission and recognized by Healthgrades as one of America's top 100 best hospitals for stroke care. Most recently, St. Mary's received the following recognition and awards for its Stroke Center:

• HealthGrades - One of America's 100 Best Hospitals for Stroke Care, 2014
• Certified as a Primary Stroke Center by the Joint Commission, 2012-13
• HealthGrades - Among Top 5% of Hospitals Nationally, 2013-14
• HealthGrades - Five-Star Award for Stroke Care, 2011-14
• Stroke Care Excellence Award, 2013-14

"We are pleased to recognize St. Mary's Medical Center for their commitment and dedication to stroke care," said Deepak L. Bhatt, M.D., M.P.H., national chairman of the Get With The Guidelines steering committee and Executive Director of Interventional Cardiovascular Programs at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "Studies have shown that hospitals that consistently follow Get With The Guidelines quality improvement measures can reduce patients' length of stays and 30-day readmission rates and reduce disparity gaps in care."

Get With The Guidelines–Stroke also helps St. Mary's staff implement prevention measures, which include educating stroke patients to manage their risk factors and to be aware of warning signs for stroke, and ensuring they take their medications properly. Hospitals can make customized patient education materials available upon discharge, based on the patients' individual risk profiles. The take-away materials are written in an easy-to-understand format in either English or Spanish.

About Dignity Health St. Mary's Medical Center:
Dignity Health St. Mary's Medical Center is an accredited, not-for-profit community hospital that has been caring for the people of San Francisco since 1857. Located across from Golden Gate Park, it is the longest continually running hospital in San Francisco. In 2014, St. Mary's received the Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence from Healthgrades. This prestigious award means St. Mary's is among the Top 5% of more than 4,500 hospitals nationwide for clinical performance. St. Mary's was also recognized as one of the Top 100 Orthopedic Programs nationally by Becker's Hospital Review and is a Certified Stroke Center by the Joint Commission. In 2011, St. Mary's opened a state-of-the-art Cancer Center, offering a full-range of oncology, radiation and imaging services. It is accredited by the American College of Surgeons' Commission on Cancer (CoC) and owns an accreditation in Radiation Oncology. It is the only hospital in San Francisco with seven accreditations from the American College of Radiology and a designation of Breast Center of Excellence. St. Mary's has a long history of pioneering medical procedures and is home to the nation's first digital cardiac catheterization laboratory and has pioneered spinal surgery like the X-Stop for the treatment of spinal stenosis. Beyond clinical care, St. Mary's is committed to furthering the healing ministry, and to providing high-quality, affordable healthcare to the community we serve. For more information, please call 415-668-1000 or visit www.stmarysmedicalcenter.org.

About Get With The Guidelines
Get With The Guidelines® is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's hospital-based quality improvement program provides hospitals with 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 4 million patients since 2001. For more information, visit heart.org/quality or heart.org/myhealthcare.

SOURCE Dignity Health St. Mary's Medical Center