White Plains, NY (June 21, 2019) - For the 14th year in a row, White Plains Hospital has been recognized with the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award. The award recognizes the Hospital’s success in ensuring that stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.
White Plains Hospital also made the Association’s Target: StrokeSM Honor Roll for meeting stroke quality measures that reduce the time between a patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with the clot-buster tissue plasminogen activator (tPA). tPA is the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke. If administered within the first three hours after the start of stroke symptoms, tPA has been shown to significantly reduce the effects of stroke and reduce the chance of permanent disability.
“This honor recognizes our commitment to providing an exceptional level of care based on the latest and best practices, and it also highlights the dedication of our expert and specialized stroke team who realize that every minute counts,” said Dr. Michael Palumbo, MD, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at White Plains Hospital.
To receive the Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award, hospitals must achieve 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get with the Guidelines-Stroke indicators for two or more consecutive years, and gain 75 percent or higher compliance with five of eight Get with the Guidelines-Stroke Quality measures.
To meet Honor Roll criteria, hospitals must administer IV tPA thrombolytic therapy in 75 percent of acute ischemic stroke patients within 60 minutes or less.
The awards follow the Hospital’s recent Advanced Certification for Primary Stroke Centers from the Joint Commission and AHA/ASA. The certification is given to hospitals that demonstrate on ongoing commitment to providing a higher standard of care for stroke patients in its community. The Advanced Stroke Program at White Plains Hospital is Westchester County's first New York State designated Regional Stroke Center, indicating the Hospital’s ability to diagnose and treat strokes using a highly specialized stroke team.
According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the fifth leading 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, someone dies of a stroke every four minutes, and nearly 800,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.
About White Plains Hospital
White Plains Hospital is a proud member of the Montefiore Health System, serving as its tertiary hub of advanced care in the Hudson Valley. The Hospital is a 292-bed not-for-profit health care organization with the primary mission of providing exceptional acute and preventive medical care to all people who live in, work in or visit Westchester County and its surrounding areas. Centers of Excellence include the Center for Cancer Care,The William & Sylvia Silberstein Neonatal & Maternity Center and The Ruth and Jerome A. Siegel Stroke Center. The Hospital’s Flanzer Emergency Department is the busiest in Westchester County, with more than 60,000 patient visits a year. White Plains Hospital performs lifesaving emergency and elective angioplasty in its Joan and Alan Herfort, MD, Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory and Marie Promuto Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory. White Plains Hospital has outpatient medical facilities across Westchester, including multispecialty practices in Armonk and New Rochelle; and Scarsdale Medical Group locations in Harrison and Scarsdale. The Hospital is fully accredited by the Joint Commission and earned its recognition as a Top Performer for Key Quality Measures® in 2015 and 2013. The Hospital received Magnet® designation in 2012 and 2016 from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). In 2014, 2016 and 2018, and 2019, White Plains Hospital received the Outstanding Patient Experience Award from Healthgrades®. http://www.wphospital.org