ECM gets American Heart stroke gold award - Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital, Florence AL

Neither Joint Commission or ASA guidelines tell you anything useful about how well the stroke hospital delivers RESULTS. 
Call that hospital executive

Bryan Lee 

COO of Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital.

(256) 768-9191

   and demand to know what the RESULTS are; 30 day deaths, 100% recovery, tPA efficacy?
There is absolutely nothing in here that tells me that the RESULTS are better in this hospital than other hospitals. I don't give a crap about how well you do processes.
Big f*cking whoopee.

You can check out Joint Commission standards here:

 http://www.jointcommission.org/assets 

 I saw absolutely nothing about what should be done the first week or anything about measuring 30-day deaths and 100% recovery.  God, these people are worse than worthless. Complacent good-for-nothings.

    
The puffery article here: They went for two certs, still nothing on results.

http://www.timesdaily.com/news/local/ecm-gets-american-heart-stroke-gold-award/article_980ab3aa-2bb6-5614-b9a0-b9ded366c6e9.html

In early February, 89-year-old Annie McClellan, 89, got out of bed to go to the bathroom of her College Street home and fell in the hallway.
She thought her son, Leroy, was being overly cautious when he insisted on calling an ambulance to the home. But his insistence was fortuitous as tests at Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital revealed McClellan had suffered a stroke at the base of her brain.

“I thought nothing about a stroke or anything like that,” McClellan said Thursday, now back in the same brick house she’s lived in for 60 years. “No one in my family that I know of has had a stroke. I didn’t know what to think.”

She spent five days being treated at ECM and then another 21 days regaining strength and dexterity at J.W. Sommer Rehabilitation Unit at Shoals Hospital, the sister facility to ECM.

When McClellan was taken by ambulance to ECM, her treatment and testing were dictated by the hospital’s stroke care protocols. Earlier this year, those protocols earned ECM accreditation from the Joint Commission as a primary stroke center, and more recently earned the hospital a gold award from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.

The gold award recognizes hospitals adhere to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association care guidelines for strokes for two or more consecutive 12-month periods.

Those guidelines include the time it takes a patient to receive the clot-buster medication shown to reduce the effects of the stroke and the amount of time it takes for a stroke patient to have a CT scan to diagnose a stroke.

Meeting the best-practice guidelines leads to better outcomes for patients.

Nurse Katina Parker cared for McClellan for three of the five days she was at ECM. Parker said stroke patients are monitored consistently for neurological changes, or new stroke symptoms.

McClellan told her caretakers at ECM she had some dizziness days before being taken to the hospital, but never associated that with a stroke.

That’s not uncommon, ECM stroke coordinator Tabitha Blassingame said.

Stroke symptoms — such as trouble walking, dizziness and loss of balance — are often explained away by patients leading to a delay in care.

The Southeast has the highest prevalence of strokes, according to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, and has been given the nickname the “Stroke Belt.”

ECM and Shoals hospitals, both owned by RegionalCare Hospital Partners, began focusing on stroke care in about 2013.

J.W. Sommer Rehabilitation at Shoals received Joint Commission certification for stroke rehab in 2014 after a year-long review by the health care accrediting agency.

Stroke patients choose their own post-hospital rehabilitation center, but a synergy exists between ECM and Shoals for stroke care, said Summer Green, rehab liaison at J.W. Sommer.

Green said when a patient is referred to J.W Sommer, they are interviewed while still in the hospital. Because of the linkage between the hospitals, the patients’ records are viewed.

“We can follow along with their care while they are still in the hospital,” she said.

Green said the rehab team also can begin putting together a therapy plan before the patient arrives.

McClellan credits her care at both stops for her returning to her home.

She continues in-home therapy three times a week to build strength. Her goal now is be able to return to tending to the plants that fill her yard.

“I want my mandevilla and tomatoes back,” she said.