DMC Detroit Receiving Hospital has received the American Stroke Association’s Get With The GuidelinesSM–Stroke (GWTG–Stroke) Silver Performance Achievement Award. The award recognizes Detroit Receiving Hospital’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of stroke care by ensuring that stroke patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted standards and recommendations.

“With a stroke, time lost is brain lost, and the Get With The Guidelines–Stroke Silver Performance Achievement Award addresses the important element of time,” said Iris A. Taylor, Ph.D., president of the hospital.   “Detroit Receiving Hospital has developed and continues to maintain a comprehensive system for rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients admitted to the emergency department.”  

To receive the GWTG-Stroke Silver Performance Achievement Award, Detroit Receiving Hospital consistently complied for at least one year with the requirements in the GWTG–Stroke program. These include aggressive use of medications like tPA, antithrombotics, anticoagulation therapy, DVT prophylaxis, cholesterol reducing drugs, and smoking cessation.

This twelve-month evaluation period is the second in an ongoing self-evaluation by the hospital to continually reach the 85 percent compliance level needed to sustain this award.

“The American Stroke Association commends Detroit Receiving Hospital for its success in implementing standards of care and protocols,” said Lee H. Schwamm, M.D., national Get With the Guidelines Steering Committee Member and director of acute stroke services at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “The full implementation of acute care and secondary prevention recommendations and guidelines is a critical step in saving the lives and improving outcomes of stroke patients.”

GWTG–Stroke uses the “teachable moment,” the time soon after a patient has had a stroke, when they are most likely to listen to and follow their healthcare 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 heart attack or 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 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.

“Detroit Receiving Hospital continues to be focused on improving the quality of stroke care by implementing Get With The Guidelines–Stroke and the timing could not be better,” said Padraic J. Sweeny, M.D., chief of emergency medicine at Detroit Receiving Hospital.

“The number of acute ischemic stroke patients eligible for treatment is expected to grow over the next decade due to increasing stroke incidence and a large aging population.”

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. 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.  In Michigan alone, it is estimated that 225,000 people have had a stroke.

About Detroit Receiving Hospital: Detroit Receiving Hospital, Michigan’s first Level I Trauma Center, is an adult specialty hospital offering expertise in emergency medicine, complex trauma, critical care, neuroscience, orthopaedics and geriatrics.

As the region’s leader in emergency medicine, Receiving’s emergency department treats more than 98,000 patients annually and an additional 10,000 patients on an out-patient basis. In addition, the University Health Center clinics treat more than 45,000 patients each year as an ambulatory facility.  Nearly 60% of Michigan’s emergency physicians are trained at Receiving. The hospital also features the state’s largest adult burn center, Michigan’s first hospital-based 24/7 hyperbaric oxygen therapy program, and Metro Detroit’s first certified primary stroke center.

Detroit Receiving Hospital is one of eight hospitals operated by the Detroit Medical Center (DMC). The DMC is proud to be the Official Healthcare Services Provider of the Detroit Tigers, Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Pistons and Detroit Shock.