Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital has received the Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. The award recognizes Phoebe’s commitment to and success in providing the highest quality of care to stroke patients.
 
Phoebe spent much of the last year educating staff on the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke program awareness guidelines. The hospital earned the award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients at a set level for a designated period. These measures include aggressive use of medications and risk-reduction therapies aimed at reducing death and disability and improving the lives of stroke patients.
 
“Our commitment to the stroke initiative extends beyond just the stroke program and our immediate team.  More than 90 percent of Phoebe employees have been educated on the stroke awareness guidelines and we present stroke education to community groups throughout our service area,” said Amanda Cauley, stroke program coordinator at Phoebe.
 
Phoebe has shown great improvement during its second year of participation in the Get With the Guidelines-Stroke program, having earned the Silver Plus Achievement award in 2015. The Gold Plus Quality Award is an advanced level of recognition awarded to hospitals that demonstrate at least 85 percent compliance for 24 consecutive months in each of the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke achievement indicators and achieve 75 percent or higher compliance in at least five of the eight quality measures.