GREATER BALTIMORE MEDICAL CENTER RECEIVES ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FROM THE AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION

Greater Baltimore Medical Center‘s (GBMC) Primary Stroke Center recently received the Get With The Guidelines®–Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award from the American Heart Association (AHA).

Hospitals who receive this recognition have achieved 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines Stroke Achievement indicators for two or more consecutive 12-month intervals and at least 12 consecutive months of 75 percent or higher compliance with five or more Get With The Guidelines®–Stroke Quality measures to improve quality of patient care and outcomes.

According to the AHA, stroke is one of the leading causes of death and serious, long-term disability in the United States.  On average, someone suffers a stroke every 45 seconds and approximately 800,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke annually.

“It is a great honor and we are very proud to be recognized by the AHA and ranked among the top stroke centers in our state,” says Michael S. Sellman, MD, chief of The Center for Neurology at GBMC. “With this recognition comes the responsibility to continue providing the high quality stroke care that our patients expect and deserve.”

Hospitals must adhere to a number of critical measures at a set level for a designated period of time to be eligible for the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke awards. These measures include starting patients on aggressive risk-reduction therapies including the use of medications such as, antithrombotics and anticoagulation therapy, along with cholesterol reducing drugs and smoking cessation counseling. These are all aimed at reducing death and disability and improving the lives of stroke patients.

The Get With The Guidelines program provides hospitals with a web-based patient management tool, best practice discharge protocols, along with a registry and real-time benchmarking capabilities to track performance.

GBMC’s Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award is the latest recognition for the hospital’s respected stroke program. Last year, the Primary Stroke Center received re-certification from The Joint Commission (TJC), an independent, not-for-profit organization and the nation's largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care. The re-certification was achieved following a thorough review of GBMC's processes involving the continuum of care provided to a stroke patient, from the Emergency Department to the inpatient units through discharge.

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Related Web-Sites:
Get With The Guidelines®–Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/HealthcareResearch/GetWithTheGuidelinesHFStrokeResus/GetWithTheGuidelinesStrokeHomePage/Get-With-The-Guidelines-Stroke-Overview_UCM_308021_Article.jsp

ABOUT GBMC

GBMC HealthCare includes Greater Baltimore Medical Center, a 255-inpatient bed acute care not-for-profit hospital which opened in 1965; Greater Baltimore Medical Associates, a group of more than 40 multi-specialty physician practices on the hospital’s Towson campus and in off-campus locations across the region; Greater Baltimore Health Alliance, a network of employed and community-based clinician partners working collaboratively to provide better health and better care at a lower cost, Gilchrist Hospice Care, Maryland’s largest hospice organization offering in-home care, a 34-bed inpatient center on the GBMC Towson campus and a 10-bed inpatient center in Howard County; and the GBMC Foundation, which raises funds to support the organization’s mission. For more information, visit www.gbmc.org