American Heart Association honors Rapides Regional Medical Center with 3 awards

Rapides Regional Medical Center has received two American Heart Association Achievement Awards for implementing quality improvement measures that ensure cardiovascular patients receive efficient and coordinated care. This ultimately leads to more lives saved, shorter recovery times and fewer returns to the hospital.

Rapides Regional Medical Center received the following Achievement Awards:

• Get With the Guidelines Stroke Gold Plus Target: Stroke with Honor Roll Elite
• Get With the Guidelines Stroke Gold Plus Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll.

Rapides Women’s and Children’s Hospital was recognized, as well, receiving Get With the Guidelines Resuscitation Silver: Pediatrics. This signifies RWCH meets set standards in pediatric patients who suffer cardiac events and need resuscitating.

This is the fourth consecutive year Rapides Regional Medical Center has earned Get With the Guidelines stroke awards by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and rapid treatment of stroke patients at a set level for a designated period.

The American Heart Association’s Get With the Guidelines program helps reduce barriers to prompt treatment for cardiovascular events. As a participant in Get With the Guidelines, Rapides Regional Medical Center demonstrated a strong commitment to improving quality care for its patients.

“Rapides Regional Medical Center is honored to be recognized by the American Heart Association for our dedication to helping our patients have the best possible chance of survival and recovery after cardiovascular events,” said RRMC Chief Nursing Officer Barbara Griffin, MSN, RN, NE-BC. “The Get With the Guidelines programs help put proven knowledge and metrics to work on a daily basis to improve outcomes for cardiovascular patients.”

These measures include evaluation of the proper use of medications and other stroke treatments aligned with the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. Before discharge, patients should also receive education on managing their health, get a follow-up visit scheduled, as well as other care transition interventions.

Nearly half of all adults in the U.S. have experienced some form of cardiovascular disease, including heart attack, stroke and heart failure. For patients with conditions that are severe enough to be transported or admitted to a hospital, time is critical.

According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the No. 5 cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the United States. On average, someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke every 40 seconds and nearly 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.