PRESS RELEASES

Stroke Program Receives Two Prestigious Awards 

ADDISON GILBERT HOSPITAL RECEIVES TWO PRESTIGIOUS AWARDS RELATED TO STROKE CARE

Awarded Defect-Free Care and Door to CT Time Target awards from Massachusetts Department of Public Health

(Gloucester, MA) June 23 - Addison Gilbert Hospital has received the Defect-free Care Award from the Stroke Collaborative Reaching for Excellence (SCORE), a voluntary statewide quality improvement collaborative administered by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH), that supports Primary Stroke Service hospitals. Defect-free care is achieved when every patient receives the appropriate care based on clinical guidelines. The hospital also received the Door-to-CT Time Target Award that supports Primary Stroke Service hospitals. The award recognizes hospitals that provide prompt computed tomography (CT) scans of patients with stroke symptoms.

The SCORE Defect-free Care Award recognizes hospitals that provided high-quality care to the majority of their stroke patients over a specific 12-month period. The number of SCORE hospitals eligible for this award has increased significantly since last year, resulting in many more patients receiving high quality care.

The impact of time can limit treatment options for stroke, because there is a three-hour window between symptom onset and the use of IV-TPA for ischemic strokes. This clot-busting treatment is the only FDA-approved treatment for eligible ischemic stroke patients. Ischemic strokes, caused by clots, account for the majority of stroke cases.

A CT scan of the brain is a critical part of stroke assessment and helps determine the best treatment for each patient. Rapid assessment is important for stroke because more and more brain cells die as a stroke continues. Quickly assessing and appropriately treating a patient increases the likelihood of a better outcome in a patient, lowering the risk for disability and death.

"We are extremely proud and honored that our continued dedication and passion for providing high quality care to each and every one of our patients was recognized by these prestigious awards from the DPH's SCORE program," said Thom Kelly, RN and Clinical Coordinator of Stroke Programs at Northeast Hospital Corporation. "By following the lead of our Chief Nursing Officer and Senior Vice President of Patient Care Services, Greg Bird whose mantra is 'Every Patient, Every Time', we will continue to deliver high quality healthcare to the residents of Cape Ann."

AddisonGilbert Hospital

Addison Gilbert Hospital is a full service, medical/surgical acute care facility. The hospital, founded in 1889, provides state-of-the-art inpatient and outpatient care to residents of the Cape Ann community in specialties such as primary care, emergency services, radiology and mammography, cancer care, day surgery, physical and occupational therapy, gynecology, inpatient senior health services, and a variety of specialty physician services. Among all other Massachusetts hospitals, Addison Gilbert continues to score among the top hospitals in the nation for patient satisfaction in surveys conducted by Press Ganey Associates.

L-R: Thomas Kelly, RN; Clinical Coordinator of Stroke Programming; Cindy Cafasso-Donaldson, Vice President of Ancillary Services and Executive Director of Addison Gilbert Hospital; Pauline Pike, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer and Laura Coe, MPH Coordinator.