VOORHEES, NJ (August 27, 2020) – Jefferson Health’s three New Jersey Hospitals — located in Cherry Hill, Stratford and Washington Township — have received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines^®-Stroke Gold Plus and Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll^TM awards. These awards recognize the hospitals’ commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines using the latest scientific evidence.

Jefferson Cherry Hill Hospital, Jefferson Stratford Hospital and Jefferson Washington Township Hospital each earned the Gold Plus award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients. Before discharge from the hospital, patients should also receive education, have a follow-up visit scheduled, as well as other care transition interventions.

“Our three New Jersey Hospitals have improved the quality of care for our stroke patients by implementing the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke initiative,” said Jefferson (NJ) Stroke Program Director Kathryn Donley, BSN, RN, CCRN-K, CNRN. “We are able to track and measure our success in meeting evidenced-based clinical guidelines developed to improve patient outcomes.”

All three Jefferson New Jersey hospitals also received the Association’s Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll award. To qualify for this recognition, hospitals must meet quality measures developed with more than 90% compliance for 12 consecutive months for the “Overall Diabetes Cardiovascular Initiative Composite Score.”

Additionally, Jefferson Cherry Hill Hospital received the Target: Stroke^SM Elite Plus award, while Jefferson Washington Township received the Target: Stroke^SM Elite award. To qualify for various Target: Stroke award levels, 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 U.S. On average, someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke every 40 seconds and nearly 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.

About Jefferson Health: Jefferson Health, home of Sidney Kimmel Medical College, is reimagining health care in the greater Philadelphia region and southern New Jersey. Jefferson’s dedicated team of doctors, nurses, health professionals, and staff provides a range of primary to highly-specialized care through 14 hospitals (seven are Magnet®-designated by the ANCC for nursing excellence), more than 40 outpatient and urgent care locations, the NCI-designated Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, Magee Rehabilitation and the JeffConnect® telemedicine program. For 2020-2021, Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals is ranked among the nation’s best hospitals in nine specialities by U.S. News & World Report. Jefferson Health’s mission is to improve the lives of patients in the communities it is privileged to serve through safe, effective, equitable, compassionate care.

About Get With The Guidelines^®: Get With The Guidelines^® is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program that provides hospitals with tools and resources to increase adherence to the latest research-based guidelines. Developed with the goal of saving lives and hastening recovery, Get With The Guidelines has touched the lives of more than 6 million patients since 2001. For more information, visit heart.org.

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