Mercy Hospitals Earn AHA Quality Distinction

Mercy hospitals have again taken top honors in the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines® awards. The recognitions highlight the hospitals’ focus to ensure patients receive efficient and coordinated care, ultimately leading to more lives saved, shorter recovery times and fewer returns to the hospital.

Mercy Hospitals Jefferson, South, St. Louis and Washington earned the GWTG® Stroke Gold Plus award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients. Each hospital has 85% or higher compliance to core standard levels of care as outlined by the AHA for two consecutive calendar years and also demonstrates 75% compliance in seven out of the ten stroke quality measures during a 12-month period. Mercy Hospital Lincoln earned the GWTG® Stroke Silver Plus award for meeting the same requirements for one calendar year.

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.

In addition, the AHA also honors hospitals for other aspects of stroke care.

Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus award recognizes hospitals with door-to-needle time (arrival of stroke patient in ER to initiation of drug therapy) within 45 minutes for at least 75% of applicable patients and door-to-needle times within 30 minutes for at least 50% of applicable patients:

• Mercy Hospital St. Louis
• Mercy Hospital South

Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite award goes to hospitals with door-to-needle times within 60 minutes for at least 85% of applicable patients:

• Mercy Hospital Jefferson
• Mercy Hospital Washington

Target: Stroke Advanced Therapy focuses on door-to-device times (arrival of stroke patient in ER to first pass with device) in at least 50% of applicable patients within 90 minutes for direct arriving patients and within 60 minutes for transfer patients.

• Mercy Hospital South

Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll recognizes special focus on diabetic care in 80% of stroke patients for 12 months.

• Mercy Hospital Jefferson
• Mercy Hospital St. Louis
• Mercy Hospital Washington

Mercy Hospital St. Louis also received the GWTG Resuscitation Silver Award, which was developed to help save lives of patients who experience in-hospital cardiac arrests by 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.

“We’re dedicated to improving the quality of care for our patients at all of our hospitals by implementing the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines initiatives,” said Kat Nelson, chief quality officer for Mercy. “The resources provided help us track and measure our success in meeting evidenced-based clinical guidelines developed to improve patient outcomes.”