News at UI Health

UI Health recently received two prestigious awards from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association (AHA/ASA) that recognize our commitment to providing effective stroke and heart failure care using the most advanced procedures available.

The AHA/ASA honored UI Health with the Get With the Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award with Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus - the highest level of recognition from the AHA/ASA - and the Get with the Guidelines®-Heart Failure Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award with Target: Heart Failure Honor Roll.

This is the second consecutive year UI Health has received the top stroke award, and the heart failure designation is an improvement from the Silver Quality Achievement Award received in 2017.

These awards recognize UI Health's commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.

Hospitals must achieve 85% or higher adherence to all stroke achievement indicators for two or more consecutive 12-month periods and achieve 75% or higher compliance with five of eight stroke quality measures to receive the Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award.

To qualify for Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus, 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 (tPA), the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke. If given intravenously in the first three hours after the start of stroke symptoms, tPA has been shown to significantly reduce the effects of stroke and lessen the change of permanent disability.

UI Health earned Heart Failure Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of heart failure patients for over 24 consecutive months. These measures include evaluation of the patient; proper use of medications; and aggressive risk-reduction therapies, including ACE inhibitors/ARBs, beta blockers, diuretics, anticoagulants, and other appropriate therapies.

To qualify for Target: Heart Failure Honor Roll, hospitals are required to meet specific criteria that improves medication adherence, provides early follow-up care and coordination, and enhances patient education. The goal is to reduce hospital readmissions and help patients improve their quality of life in managing this chronic condition.

Research has shown that hospitals adhering to clinical measures through the Get With The Guidelines® quality-improvement initiatives can often see fewer readmissions and lower mortality rates. These notable accomplishments were made possible by the passion and dedication of the numerous disciplines that care for our stroke and heart patients here at UI Health.