Stroke Care at NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem Receives National Recognition as a Center of Excellence

NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem has received a prestigious award from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association (AHA/ASA) for its success in ensuring that stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines that are predicated on the latest scientific evidence.

The AHA/ASA gave Harlem Hospital the Get With The Guidelines—Stroke Silver Plus award and its Get With The Guidelines—Target: Stroke Honor Roll.

“NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem has been a designated primary stroke center since 2007 and has developed a multi-disciplinary stroke team to quickly assess our stroke patients in the emergency room and decide if they are candidates for thrombolytic therapy,” said PAGNY Dr. Anne Kleiman, Chief of Neurology. “We have complied with the guidelines set by the Department of Health and our progress is assessed annually. This year we are proud to be award recipients as a designated stroke center for a Silver Plus Award 2015. We have done an excellent job in achieving completion of the many clinical measures assessed in stroke care and look forward to providing this care for many more years to come.”

To receive the Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award, hospitals must achieve at least 85 percent adherence to all Get With The Guidelines achievement indicators for at least 12 consecutive months and, achieve 75 percent or higher compliance with five of eight Get With The Guidelines quality measures.

To attain the Target: Stroke Honor Roll, hospitals must meet quality measures to ensure that stroke victims are treated with blood clot-busting medications as soon as they arrive at the hospital. If given intravenously in the first three hours after the start of stroke symptoms, the medication, tPA, has been shown to significantly reduce the effects of stroke and lessen the chance of permanent disability.

These quality measures are designed to help hospital teams provide the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients.