South Nassau is Among the Elite at Treating Stroke

OCEANSIDE, N.Y. - June 12, 2015 - PRLog -- South Nassau Communities was awarded the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®–Target: Stroke Honor Roll-Elite Quality Achievement Award at the association’s International Stroke Conference 2015.

The award recognizes South Nassau’s commitment and success to ensuring that stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines.

“This award demonstrates our steadfast commitment to ensuring patients receive care based on nationally-respected clinical guidelines,” said Joshua Kugler, MD, chair of the Emergency Services Department at South Nassau.

“South Nassau is keenly focused on raising our standards of care and service by practicing and perfecting clinical guidelines, which is essential to fulfilling our mission to meet the patients’ and communities’ needs for quality, patient-centered healthcare services,” added Richard J. Murphy, South Nassau’s president and CEO.

To receive the Target: Stroke Honor Roll-Elite award, South Nassau fulfilled quality measures developed to reduce the time between the patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with the clot-buster tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke. If given intravenously in the first three hours after the start of stroke symptoms, tPA has been shown to significantly reduce the effects of stroke and lessen the chance of permanent disability. Over twelve months, at least 75 percent of the hospital’s ischemic stroke patients have received tPA within 60 minutes of arriving at the hospital (known as door-to-needle time).

The tPA therapy is not an option for patients with hemorrhagic stroke (which is when a blood vessel in the brain leaks or bursts) or who have: bleeding ulcer, blood clotting problems, brain cancer, extremely high blood pressure or prior bleeding problems.

The quality measures are designed to help hospital teams provide the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients.  South Nassau has also met specific scientific guidelines as a Primary Stroke Center, featuring a comprehensive system for rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients admitted to its emergency department.

A study appearing in the April 23-30, 2014, issue of Journal of the American Medical Association examining the results of “Target: Stroke” found that implementation of the quality initiative was associated with improvement in the time to treatment and a lower risk of in-hospital death, intracranial hemorrhage (bleeding in the brain), and an increase in the portion of patients discharged to their home.  Coordinated by Gregg C. Fonarow, M.D., of the University of California, Los Angeles, and based on the outcomes of more than 71,000 patients, the study’s findings further reinforced the importance and clinical benefits of more rapid administration of intravenous tPA.

According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the fourth-leading cause of death in the United States and a leading cause of serious, long-term disability.  On average, someone suffers a stroke every 45 seconds; someone dies of a stroke every three minutes; and 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.  All of the major symptoms of stroke appear suddenly and without warning and they are often not painful.  The most common symptoms of stroke can be remembered by the acronym FAST:

F = Face: Is one side of the face drooping down?

A = Arm: Can the person raise both arms, or is one arm weak?

S = Speech: Is speech slurred or confusing?

T = Time: Time is critical! Call 9-1-1 immediately!

Other less common symptoms of stroke are sudden trouble seeing, sudden dizziness, and generalized weakness.  If you or someone you are with is experiencing some or any of these symptoms, call 9-1-1 immediately.

South Nassau’s Emergency Services Department is designated a regional Stroke Center by the New York State Department of Health, and has also been awarded the Get With The Guidelines® Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award the past three years.  Including highly skilled, board-certified physicians with expertise in treating stroke, the department provides:

•          Rapid assessment of patients with stroke symptoms

•          On-site new generation CT scanner that minimizes radiation exposure

•          Prompt treatment using advanced therapies and procedures

•          Comprehensive neurological and neurosurgical care throughout hospitalization

•          Nurses with special training in stroke care

•          Stroke support group

•          Community education

As southern Nassau’s only Trauma Level II Center, the emergency department has more than 35 large independent treatment bays and specialty areas, including Pediatrics and Behavioral Health, as well as its own dedicated Computerized Radiology Suitefor rapid access for testing and results.

South Nassau is the only hospital on Long Island to win four major awards or recognition for quality in recent months, including for nursing excellence, women’s programs and top rankings from U.S. News & World Report and from the Joint Commission.

Designated a Magnet® hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), South Nassau® Communities Hospital is one of the region’s largest hospitals, with 455 beds, more than 900 physicians and 3,000 employees.  Located in Oceanside, NY, the hospital is an acute-care, not-for-profit teaching hospital that provides state-of-the-art care in cardiac, oncologic, orthopedic, bariatric, pain management, mental health and emergency services.  In addition to its extensive outpatient specialty centers, South Nassau provides emergency and elective angioplasty, and is the only hospital on Long Island with the Novalis Tx™ and Gamma Knife® radiosurgery technologies.  South Nassau is a designated Stroke Center by the New York State Department of Health and Comprehensive Community Cancer Center by the American College of Surgeons and is an accredited center of the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Association and Quality Improvement Program.  In addition, the hospital has been awarded the Joint Commission’s gold seal of approval as a Top Performer on Key Quality Measures, including heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care; and disease-specific care for hip and joint replacement, wound care and end-stage renal disease. For more information, visit www.southnassau.org.