MarinHealth Receives AHA Awards for High-Quality Stroke Care

MarinHealth today announced it received three of the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines® awards for its commitments to following up-to-date, research-based guidelines for the treatment of stroke, ultimately leading to more lives saved.

Every 40 seconds, someone in the U.S. has a stroke or heart attack, and heart disease and stroke are the No. 1 and No. 5 causes of death in the United States, respectively. Studies show patients can recover better when providers consistently follow treatment guidelines.

Get With The Guidelines put the expertise of the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association to work for hospitals nationwide, helping ensure patient care is aligned with the latest evidence and research-based guidelines. As a participant in Get With The Guidelines program, MarinHealth qualified for the awards by demonstrating its deep commitment to continually improving quality of care.

“MarinHealth is committed to improving care for patients by adhering to the latest treatment guidelines and streamlining processes to ensure timely and proper care for heart attacks and stroke.” said Dr. David Klein, CEO of MarinHealth. “Our greatest reward is caring for patients. Get With the Guidelines program makes it easier for our teams to put proven knowledge and guidelines to work on a daily basis, which helps us ensure more people in Marin experience longer, healthier lives.”

This year, MarinHealth received the following achievement awards:

• Stroke Gold Plus: Hospitals receiving Gold Plus Achievement Award have reached an aggressive goal of treating patients to core standard levels of care as outlined by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association for 2 consecutive calendar years or more and have demonstrated compliance to an additional level of heart failure quality during the 24-month or greater period.
• Stroke Honor Role Elite Plus: Hospitals achieving Time to Intravenous Thrombolytic Therapy ≤ 60 minutes in 75% of eligible patients treated in equal to or less than 45 minutes AND 50% of eligible patients treated in equal to or less than 30 minutes to improve quality of patient care and outcomes.
• Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll-Stroke: Hospitals that qualify for Silver Level or higher achievement award in Get With The Guidelines-Stroke and achieve an “Overall Diabetes Cardiovascular Initiative Composite Score of ≥ 80%.

“We are pleased to recognize MarinHealth for its commitment to caring for those in their community who need cardiovascular care,” said John Warner, M.D., FAHA, past president of the American Heart Association and executive vice president for health system affairs at UT Southwestern Medical Center, in Dallas. “Hospitals that follow the American Heart Association’s quality improvement protocols often see improved patient outcomes, fewer readmissions, and lower mortality rates – a win for health care systems, families, and communities.”