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SGMC Receives The Silver Plus Award For Stroke Care

Posted on: April 16th, 2013

4/16/2013

South Georgia Medical Center has received the American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines?-Stroke Silver Plus Performance Achievement Award. The award recognizes SGMC’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of stroke care by ensuring that stroke patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted standards and recommendations.  “Our challenge is to get the right care to the patient in the shortest time possible,” explains SGMC CEO Randy Sauls. “We care about our patients. That’s why we’ve made a commitment to turn treatment guidelines into lifelines for our stroke patients.”  The Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Performance Achievement Award addresses the important element of time explains SGMC Neurohospitalist Dr. Brian Dawson. “We have developed a comprehensive system for rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients,” he said. “This includes being equipped to provide CT-scans, having neurologists available to conduct patient evaluations and using clot-busting medications when appropriate.”  To receive the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Silver Plus Performance Achievement Award, SGMC consistently followed the treatment guidelines in the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Program for 12 consecutive months. SGMC also received an advanced level of recognition that acknowledges them for their compliance of the Quality Measures within the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Program. These include aggressive use of medications like tPA, antithrombotics, anticoagulation therapy, DVT prophylaxis, cholesterol reducing drugs, smoking cessation and dysphagia screening. According to the American Stroke Association, each year approximately 795,000 people suffer a stroke – 610,000 are first attacks and 185,000 are recurrent. Every 40 seconds, someone in the United States is suffering from a stroke. This deadly condition accounts for 1 out of every 18 deaths in the United States. For more information about stroke care at SGMC, please visit www.sgmc.org.