Trio of awards highlights outstanding care in stroke, heart failure and resuscitation

A trio of awards from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association have been presented to Upstate University Hospital in recognition of the hospital’s outstanding care for its treatment of stroke, heart failure and resuscitation of adults.

Upstate has received the Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Achievement Award with Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus, Gold Plus; Get with the Guidelines-Heart Failure Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award; and Get With The Guidelines^®-Resuscitation Bronze Award. Franklin Fry, executive director of the Syracuse Region’s American Heart Association and American Stroke Association, presented the awards to Upstate in a brief ceremony July 17.

“These three honors from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association are significant and important to Upstate,” said Robert Corona, DO, MBA, chief executive officer of Upstate University Hospital. “They reflect our work and dedication of our health care team to provide the best, most appropriate and safest care possible to our patients.”

“The Upstate University Hospital team is to be commended for its commitment to improving the quality of care for their patients,” said Lee H. Schwamm, MD, chair of the Get With The Guidelines National Steering Committee. “The goal of the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines program is to help healthcare providers implement appropriate evidence-based care and protocols that will reduce disability and death and improve the quality of life for patients. Published scientific studies are providing us with more and more evidence that Get With The Guidelines works. Patients are getting the right care they need when they need it. That’s resulting in improved survival.”

In all areas assessed, Upstate exceeded the achievement measures by a significant margins.

For its stroke care, Upstate received the Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Achievement Award with Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus.

“The recognition we receive each year from the Association is important to us and important for our patients and families, too,” said Josh Onyan, BSN, RN, SCRN, stroke program manager. “It’s continued recognition that the care they receive here matches the scientific evidence at giving them the greatest chance at a full recovery.”

The award recognizes the hospital’s commitment to providing the most appropriate stroke treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence. Upstate earned the award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients at a set level for a designated period. 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.

Upstate’s stroke care has been honored previously by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. Upstate is the region’s first Comprehensive Stroke Center as designated by DNV Healthcare, a national hospital accrediting body.

For its Heart Failure Care, Upstate received the Get with the Guidelines Heart Failure Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award.

“Upstate is dedicated to improving the quality of care for our patients with heart failure by implementing the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-HF initiative,” said Connie Randolph, RN, MS, CNS, CCCC, coordinator of the heart failure program. “The tools and resources provided help us track and measure our success in meeting evidenced-based clinical guidelines developed to improve patient outcomes.”

This award recognizes Upstate Downtown and Community campuses commitment to ensuring that our heart failure patients receive evidence-based medications and interventions. The goal is to enhance the quality of life for our heart failure patient population and reduce hospital readmissions. The data submitted reflects guideline directed medical therapy (GDMT). Upstate Downtown and Community campuses achieved the award by adhering to evidence-based guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment for our heart failure patients in 2018.

“This award has been received by the Downtown and Community Campuses for more than five years, said Maureen Hartmann, RN, MS, CHFN, heart failure coordinator at the Community Campus. “We continue to work on ways to improve adherence to GDMT in the hospital and in the community among both the providers and the patients in order to improve outcomes and quality of life for our heart failure patients.”

Upstate has been honored previously by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association for its Heart Failure program.

For its work in the area of adult resuscitation, Upstate received Get With The Guidelines^®-Resuscitation (Adult) Bronze Award. Upstate has received this award for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association for the treatment of patients who suffer cardiac arrests in the hospital.

“Upstate is dedicated to utilizing evidence based practice to ensure that our patients have the best possible outcomes. Implementation of American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation Program is helping us accomplish this by putting best practice and guidelines to work on a daily basis,” said Ellen Anderson BSN, RN, resuscitation program manager.

“We are honored to be recognized with this national award for resuscitation,” said Matthew Grover RN,CCRN resuscitation program coordinator.  This is proof that the quality initiatives we have implemented are truly benefiting our patients.”

More than 200,000 adults and children have an in-hospital cardiac arrest each year, according to the American Heart Association. The Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation program was developed with the goal to save lives of those who experience cardiac arrests through consistently following the most up-to-date research-based guidelines for treatment. Guidelines include following protocols for patient safety, medical emergency team response, effective and timely resuscitation (CPR) and post-resuscitation care.

Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation builds on the work of the American Heart Association’s National Registry of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation originally launched in 1999 and has collected in-hospital arrest data from more than 900 hospitals. Data from the registry and the quality program give participating hospitals feedback on their resuscitation practice and patient outcomes. The data also help improve research-based guidelines for in-hospital resuscitation.

Caption: This is the first year the resuscitation team was honored by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. Members, from left are, Matt Grover, RN, CCRN resuscitation program coordinator; Ellen Anderson, BSN, RN, adult SWAT team/ICU  float and support pool nurse manager, resuscitation program manager; Nicole Staring, RN, CCRN, adult SWAT nurse; Christina Martino, MSN, RN adult SWAT nurse/clinical trainer ICU float & support pool; Colleen Diekemper MSN, FNP, CCRN adult SWAT nurse; Janice Maggio BSN, RN CCRN adult SWAT nurse; and Charles Berardi BSN, RN, CCRN adult SWAT nurse.