Published on February 09, 2011
Ernesto Fernandez, MD to accept Stroke Silver Quality Achievement award at International Stroke Conference on behalf of Southern Regional
RIVERDALE, Ga. (Feb. 9, 2011) - Ernesto Fernandez, MD will be accepting the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's (AHA/ASA) Get With The Guidelines - Stroke Silver Quality Achievement Award on behalf of Southern Regional Medical Center at the International Stroke Conference on Thurs., Feb. 10 in Los Angeles, Calif.
The award recognizes Southern Regional's commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of stroke care, ensuring stroke patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted standards and recommendations.
"This is an awesome achievement for us," Fernandez said. "I'm very happy with my stroke team - this was a team effort made possible by the participation of the doctors, nurses, technicians and administrative leadership of Stroke Services Manager Kim Anda."
To receive the Stroke Silver Quality Achievement Award, Southern Regional consistently complied for at least one year with the requirements int he Get With The Guidelines-Stroke program. These include aggressive use of medications like tPA, antithrombotics, anticoagulation therapy, DVT prophylaxis, cholesterol reducing drugs and smoking cessation.
Southern Regional also was named an AHA/ASA Target Stroke Honor Roll hospital for IV Thrombolytics, or the ability to administer a clot busting drug within 60 minutes of the patients' arrival. Southern Regional made the honor roll for achieving this goal in over 50 percent of eligible patients.
Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and serious, long-term disability in the United States, according to AHA/ASA. On average, someone suffers a stroke every 40 seconds; someone dies of a stroke every four minutes; and 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.
For more information on Southern Regional's stroke treatment program or to learn the signs of stroke, visit www.southernregional.org.