Florida Hospital North Pinellas Receives Two Quality Achievement Awards from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association

Tarpon Springs, FL (December 4, 2012)  – Florida Hospital North Pinellas has received the Get With The Guidelines^®–Heart Failure Silver Quality Achievement Award from the American Heart Association. The recognition signifies that Florida Hospital North Pinellas has reached an aggressive goal of treating heart failure patients with 85 percent compliance for one year to core standard levels of care as outlined by the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology secondary prevention guidelines for heart failure patients.

Florida Hospital North Pinellas has also received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines^®-Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award.  This award recognizes Florida Hospital North Pinellas’ commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of stroke care by ensuring that stroke patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted standards and recommendations. To receive the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award, Florida Hospital North Pinellas achieved at least 12 consecutive months of 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality Achievement indicators and achieved at least 75 percent or higher compliance with six of 10 Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality Measures during that same period of time, which are reporting initiatives to measure quality of care.

“The full implementation of national heart failure guideline recommended care is a critical step in preventing recurrent hospitalizations and prolonging the lives of heart failure patients,” said Lee H. Schwamm, M.D., chair of the Get With The Guidelines National Steering Committee and director of the TeleStroke and Acute Stroke Services at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Mass. “The goal of the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines program is to help hospitals like Florida Hospital North Pinellas implement appropriate evidence-based care and protocols that will reduce disability and the number of deaths in these 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.”   

“Additionally, Florida Hospital North Pinellas is to be commended for its commitment to implementing standards of care and protocols for treating stroke patients,” said Schwamm, “The full implementation of acute care and secondary prevention recommendations and guidelines is a critical step in saving the lives and improving outcomes of stroke patients.”           

“Florida Hospital North Pinellas is dedicated to ensuring our care for heart failure patients is always among the best in the country. We will continue our successful efforts  by adhering to the guidelines of the American Heart Association’s Heart Failure program,” said Bruce Bergherm, President/CEO of Florida Hospital North Pinellas. “As important is stroke care. With a stroke, time lost is brain lost; our staff is committed to providing care to quickly and efficiently treat stroke patients with evidence-based protocol.”

According to the American Heart Association, about 5.7 million people suffer from heart failure.  Statistics also show that, each year, 670,000 new cases are diagnosed and more than 277,000 people will die of heart failure.

According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, 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 40 seconds; someone dies of a stroke every four minutes; and 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.

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About Florida Hospital North Pinellas:

Florida Hospital North Pinellas, located in Tarpon Springs, is a member of The Florida Hospital network of the Adventist Health System, the largest health care provider in the state. Each year The Florida Hospital network cares for nearly one million residents and visitors each year.  As a 168-bed, full-service hospital, Florida Hospital North Pinellas serves both the Pinellas and Pasco communities of west central Florida.  For more information, please visit our website:  FHNorthPinellas.com