Saint Mary's Sacred Heart Hospital issued the following announcement on May 5.
St. Mary’s has become the first hospital in Georgia to earn The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval® for certification as a Thrombectomy-Capable Stroke Center. St. Mary’s simultaneously received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Heart-Check mark for meeting specific standards of care for patients with stroke.
The Athens hospital provides a full continuum of stroke services including emergency care, critical care, rehabilitative services, prevention and education. The new certifications reflect St. Mary’s ability to provide mechanical thrombectomy services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in conjunction with neurological interventional specialists Dr. Neil Woodall and Dr. Feroze Afzal.
Mechanical thrombectomy uses minimally invasive technology to physically remove blood clots from the large blood vessels that supply blood to the brain. These large-vessel blood clots produce some of the most severe strokes and are often too large to treat with clot-busting drugs. When performed soon enough after a stroke begins, removing the clot may restore blood flow, save brain cells that would otherwise die, and reduce the risk of disability and death.
“We are proud to be the first hospital in the state of Georgia to receive thrombectomy-capable certification,” said St. Mary’s President and CEO Montez Carter.
“Our team has been on the forefront of stroke care for more than 20 years,” Carter noted. “These certifications demonstrate our ongoing commitment to staying on the leading edge. Our stroke program has saved many lives and helped untold numbers of people prevent or recover from profound disability. Our new capabilities are already helping even more people continue to lead full and meaningful lives after what would otherwise be a devastating stroke.”
St. Mary’s underwent a rigorous onsite review in early March. During the visit, a team of Joint Commission reviewers evaluated compliance with stroke-related certification standards, including processes and procedures, staff training, and the use of best practices for the safe delivery of care. Joint Commission standards are developed in consultation with health care experts and providers, measurement experts, and patients. The reviewers also conducted onsite observations and interviews.
“Thrombectomy-Capable Stroke Center certification recognizes health care organizations committed to fostering continuous quality improvement in patient safety and quality of care,” said Mark Pelletier, RN, MS, chief operating officer, Accreditation and Certification Operations, and chief nursing executive, The Joint Commission. “We commend St. Mary’s for using certification to reduce variation in its clinical processes and to strengthen its program structure and management framework for stroke patients.”
St. Mary’s received its first Joint Commission certification as a primary stroke center in 2004, becoming one of the first 20 community hospitals in the nation to be certified. St. Mary’s went on to be certified as an Advanced Primary Stroke Center a few years later and received its first American Heart Association/American Stroke Assocation Get With the Guidelines Gold-Plus award for stroke care in 2010. The hospital has received the AHA/ASA Gold-Plus award every year since.
St. Mary’s Good Samaritan Hospital in Greensboro and St. Mary’s Sacred Heart Hospital in Lavonia are not included in the Joint Commission certification. However, both are designated by the state of Georgia as remote treatment stroke centers. This designation means the hospitals, using telehealth connections with stroke experts in larger communities, have the ability to rapidly evaluate patients with stroke symptoms and administer the clot-busting drug tPA (Alteplase) when appropriate. Patients can then recover at the local hospital or be rushed to St. Mary’s in Athens for mechanical thrombectomy, if necessary.
“We congratulate St. Mary’s for this outstanding achievement,” said Nancy Brown, chief executive officer, the American Stroke Association. “This certification reflects its commitment to providing the highest quality of care for stroke patients.”
Original source can be found here.
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