Seven Mount Sinai Health System hospitals have received top quality achievement awards from the American Heart Association for ensuring that patients with stroke, heart failure, and severe heart attacks receive the most appropriate and safest treatment for the best possible outcomes.
“Congratulations to our teams for these significant achievements that demonstrate Mount Sinai’s dedication to quality of care. The experts across our Health System have executed innovative approaches to diagnosis and treatment of stroke, heart failure, and heart attack,” said Kenneth L. Davis, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Mount Sinai Health System. “I commend them for their dedication to setting standards for excellence and making the care and safety of our patients a top priority.”
The Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Beth Israel, Mount Sinai Brooklyn, Mount Sinai Morningside, Mount Sinai Queens, and Mount Sinai South Nassau received the Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Awards. The award recognizes each hospital’s commitment to ensuring that stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence. Additionally, Mount Sinai West was honored with Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Silver Plus award, which highlights its goal of treating patients with compliance to high standard levels of care.
Each of these Mount Sinai Health System hospitals earned the award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients at a set level for a designated period. These measures include evaluation of the proper use of medications and other stroke treatments aligned with the most up-to-date evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. Before discharge, patients should also receive education on managing their health and get a follow-up visit scheduled, and have access to help transitioning their care from a hospital to home setting.
Additionally, The Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Beth Israel, and Mount Sinai South Nassau received the association’s Target: Stroke Elite Honor Roll Award. Mount Sinai
Queens received the Target: Stroke Honor Roll Award. Mount Sinai West received the Target: Stroke and Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll Award, and Mount Sinai Morningside also received the Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll Award. To qualify for this recognition, hospitals must meet quality measures developed to reduce the time between the patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with the clot-buster tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke.
According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the No. 5 cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the United States. On average, someone in the United States has a stroke every 40 seconds and nearly 795,000 people experience a new or recurrent stroke each year. The “Get With The Guidelines” quality improvement initiative can often lead to fewer readmissions and lower mortality rates.
For cardiac care, The Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Beth Israel, and Mount Sinai South Nassau also received Get With The Guidelines®-Heart Failure Gold Plus Award and Target: Heart Failure Honor Roll Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association. This program helps hospital teams follow the most up-to-date research-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing hospital readmissions for heart failure patients. The hospitals earned these awards by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of heart failure patients at a set level for a designated period. These measures include evaluation of the patient, proper use of medications, and aggressive risk-reduction therapies, such as ACE inhibitors/ARBs, beta-blockers, diuretics, anticoagulants, and other appropriate therapies. Before patients are discharged, they must also receive education on managing their heart failure and overall health, schedule a follow-up visit, and have a plan to transition their care from hospital to home.
An estimated 6.2 million Americans are living with heart failure and its prevalence continues to rise, with more than 8 million Americans projected to be diagnosed by 2030. The chronic condition accounts for approximately 900,000 hospitalizations annually, which is nearly two hospitalizations every minute. Numerous published studies demonstrate the Get With The Guidelines®-Heart Failure programs have achieved significant improvements in patient outcomes including reducing 30-day readmissions.
Additionally, Mount Sinai Morningside has been honored with the Lifeline® Gold Plus Receiving Quality Achievement Award and Mount Sinai Beth Israel and The Mount Sinai Hospital have been given the Lifeline® Gold Receiving Quality Achievement Award. These recognize the implementation of specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association for the treatment of patients who experience severe heart attacks.
Every year, more than 250,000 people experience an ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), the deadliest type of heart attack, caused by a blockage of blood flow to the heart that requires timely treatment. To prevent death, it’s critical to restore blood flow as quickly as possible, either by mechanically opening the blocked vessel or by providing clot-busting medication. The American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline program’s goal is to reduce system barriers to prompt treatment for heart attacks, beginning with the 9-1-1 call, to EMS transport and continuing through hospital treatment and discharge. The initiative provides tools, training, and other resources to support heart attack care following protocols from the most recent evidence-based treatment guidelines.
Tags: Heart – Cardiology & Cardiovascular Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Mount Sinai Health System, The Mount Sinai Hospital, Kenneth L Davis, MD
About the Mount Sinai Health System
The Mount Sinai Health System is New York City’s largest academic medical system, encompassing eight hospitals, a leading medical school, and a vast network of ambulatory practices throughout the greater New York region. Mount Sinai is a national and international source of unrivaled education, translational research and discovery, and collaborative clinical leadership ensuring that we deliver the highest quality care—from prevention to treatment of the most serious and complex human diseases. The Health System includes more than 7,200 physicians and features a robust and continually expanding network of multispecialty services, including more than 400 ambulatory practice locations throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, and Long Island. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 14 on U.S. News & World Report’s “Honor Roll” of the Top 20 Best Hospitals in the country and the Icahn School of Medicine as one of the Top 20 Best Medical Schools in country. Mount Sinai Health System hospitals are consistently ranked regionally by specialty and our physicians in the top 1% of all physicians nationally by U.S. News & World Report.
