• John Muir Medical Center - Concord and Walnut Creek Campuses Recognized for Implementing Quality Stroke Care

John Muir Medical Center - Concord and Walnut Creek Campuses Recognized for Implementing Quality Stroke Care

Walnut Creek -- John Muir Medical Center's Concord and Walnut Creek campuses have recently been recognized by the American Stroke Association's Get With the Guidelines (GWTG) program for their performance achievement in stroke patient care. The Walnut Creek Campus received the Annual Achievement Award and the Concord Campus is the recipient of the Sustained Achievement Award. Both awards recognize John Muir Health's success in implementing a higher standard of stroke care by ensuring that stroke patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted standards and recommendations.

To receive the Achievement Award, the Walnut Creek Campus consistently complied for 12 consecutive months with the requirements in the GWTG-Stroke program. These include aggressive use of interventions like tPA (clot-busting medication), antithrombotic medications, anticoagulation therapy, DVT prophylaxis, cholesterol reducing drugs, and smoking cessation education. The Concord Campus received the Sustained Award for following the GWTG-Stroke program for 24 consecutive months. To achieve these recognition levels, hospitals must demonstrate 85 percent adherence in the GWTG-Stroke key measures.

"With a stroke, time lost is brain lost and these GWTG-Stroke achievement awards address the important element of time," says Raymond Stephens, M.D., medical director for the Stroke Center at the Concord Campus. "Both our Concord and Walnut Creek campuses are committed to providing excellent care. We are proud that both medical centers are being recognized for the quality of care we deliver to our stroke patients."

As Primary Stroke Centers certified by the Joint Commission, a national surveyor of quality patient care, John Muir Medical Center's Concord and Walnut Creek campuses and the first in Contra Costa and Alameda Counties, have an organized approach to assessing and treating patients who are having a stroke. Both campuses follow national standards and guidelines that can significantly improve outcomes for stroke patients. These include: rapid assessment of stroke symptoms, neurologists available for consultation 24-hours a day, use of state-of-the-art treatment options including intravenous tPA, designated stroke care units, participation in research protocols, professional stroke education, access to an inpatient rehabilitation unit and outpatient physical rehabilitation services.

Each year, about 700,000 people in the United States suffer a stroke — 500,000 are first attacks and 200,000 are recurrent. Of stroke survivors, 22 percent of men and 25 percent of women die within a year, and for those aged 65 and older, the percentage is even higher.

"The American Stroke Association commends John Muir Medical Center's Walnut Creek and Concord campuses for their success in implementing standards of care and protocols," says Lee H. Schwamm, M.D., national GWTG 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."

About John Muir Neurosciences Institute:
The John Muir Neurosciences Institute is one of the Bay Area's most advanced and comprehensive resources for neurosciences. The Institute offers the latest treatment options for stroke, brain injury, brain tumors, neurotrauma, dementia and spinal injury. The John Muir Neurosciences Institute's clinical specialists are experts who provide some of the most comprehensive neurologic diagnostic treatment available. Click here for additional details.

About the American Stroke Association:
The American Stroke Association offers a wide array of programs, products and services, from patient education materials to scientific statements with cutting-edge information for healthcare professionals. The organization, a division of the American Heart Association, is a committed leader in providing credible stroke information to individuals and healthcare providers. For more information about the American Stroke Association or its initiatives, visit StrokeAssociation.org or call 1-888-4-STROKE. For more information about Get With The Guidelines - Stroke, e-mail guidelinesinfo@heart.org or visit: www.strokeassociation.org/getwiththeguidelines.

(Posted July 25, 2007)