The award recognizes Florida Medical Center’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of stroke care by ensuring that stroke patients receive treatment according to evidence-based guidelines.

“In treating stroke, time to treatment is a key factor in predicting patient outcomes,” said Bob Haley, CEO of Florida Medical Center. “Receiving the Get With The Guidelines–Stroke Silver Performance Achievement Award shows that Florida Medical Center is taking action to treat its stroke patients quickly and effectively.”

Through GWTG-Stroke, Florida Medical Center is tracking comprehensive efforts to rapidly diagnose and treat stroke patients admitted to the emergency department. This includes being equipped to provide brain imaging scans, having neurologists available to conduct patient evaluations and using clot-busting medications when appropriate.

To receive the GWTG-Stroke Silver Performance Achievement Award, Florida Medical Center consistently complied for at least one year with the requirements in the GWTG–Stroke program. These include aggressive use of medications like tPA, antithrombotics, anticoagulation therapy, DVT prophylaxis, cholesterol reducing drugs, and smoking cessation. This twelve-month evaluation period reflects an ongoing effort of the hospital to continually maintain 85 percent compliance required for an award.

“The American Stroke Association recognizes Florida Medical Center for successfully implementing proven standards of care for stroke treatment,” said Lee H. Schwamm, M.D., vice chair of the Get With The Guidelines steering committee and vice chairman of the Neurology department at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

 “By meeting Get With The Guidelines Silver Performance Achievement Award criteria, Florida Medical Center demonstrates its active effort to improve the outcomes of the stroke patients it serves and save more lives.”

The GWTG Patient Management Tool provides access to up-to-date cardiovascular and stroke science at the point of care.

“Articles published in leading scientific journals have increasingly documented the effectiveness of Get With The Guidelines-Stroke. The time is right for Florida Medical Center to continue its focus on providing high quality, science-based stroke care. The number of acute ischemic stroke patients eligible for treatment is expected to grow over the next decade due to increasing stroke incidence and a large aging population,” said Haley.

GWTG-Stroke is a comprehensive program that provides an online interactive assessment and report tool, resources, quarterly workshops, training and feedback to staff at participating hospitals.

The goal is to improve implementation of evidence-based interventions that are proven to reduce complications after stroke and the chances of a subsequent stroke or heart attack.
Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States. According to the American Stroke Association, approximately 795,000 people each year experience a new or recurrent stroke.

About Florida Medical Center
Florida Medical Center, part of Tenet’s Miami-Dade/Broward Health Network, is a 459-bed acute care hospital founded in 1973 and fully accredited by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

Located at 5000 West Oakland Park Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale in western Broward County, Florida Medical Center offers a broad range of medical and surgical services.  Its Heart Institute of Florida, the hospital’s center for cardiac services, is designated a Premium Cardiac Specialty Center by UnitedHealthcare. 

The hospital earned the Pulmonary Care Excellence Award for 2008 from HealthGrades, a leading ratings organization for hospitals and physicians, and it also earned five-star ratings from HealthGrades for its treatment of heart attacks, heart failure, stroke, pneumonia, hip fractures and other ailments. 

FMC’s additional services include neurology and neurosurgery, cancer care, orthopedics, urology, psychiatry, gynecology, imaging, pain center, sleep lab, wound care, and 24-hour emergency services. 

About GWTG
Get With The Guidelines^SM (GWTG) is the American Heart Association/ American Stroke Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program that empowers healthcare teams to save lives and reduce healthcare costs by helping hospitals follow evidence-based guidelines and recommendations.