Inova Alexandria Hospital honored with quality achievement award for stroke care

ALEXANDRIA, VA – April 8, 2014 – Inova Alexandria Hospital has received the Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold-Plus Quality Achievement Award for implementing quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association for the treatment of stroke patients.

Get With The Guidelines Stroke helps hospital teams provide the most up-to-date, research-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. Inova Alexandria Hospital earned the award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients at a set level for a designated period.  These measures include aggressive use of medications and risk-reduction therapies aimed at reducing death and disability and improving the lives of stroke patients.

“Inova Alexandria Hospital is dedicated to improving the quality of stroke care and these guidelines help us achieve that goal,” said Christine Candio, CEO, Inova Alexandria Hospital, “With this award, our hospital demonstrates our commitment to ensure that our patients receive care based on internationally-respected clinical guidelines.”

“Get With The Guidelines–Stroke also helps our staff implement prevention measures, which include educating stroke patients to manage their risk factors and to be aware of warning signs for stroke, and ensuring they take their medications properly,” said Lewis Eberly, MD, Director of Neuroscience and Stroke at Inova Alexandria Hospital, “Hospitals can make customized patient education materials available upon discharge, based on the patients’ individual risk profiles.”

According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the number four cause of death and a leading cause of adult 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.

Media Contact: Allison Kenty, 703-504-3840

# # #About Get With The Guidelines
Get With The Guidelines® is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program that provides hospitals with the latest research-based guidelines.  Developed with the goal of saving lives and hastening recovery, Get With The Guidelines has touched the lives of more than 4 million patients since 2001. For more information, visit heart.org/quality or heart.org/myhealthcare.