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Lewis County General Hospital Awarded for Efforts to
Improve Rural Stroke Care
Published: August 11, 2024
at 03:00 p.m.
By: Press Release from Lewis County Health System
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
August 8, 2024
Lewis County General Hospital Awarded for Efforts to Improve
Rural Stroke Care
The American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines® - Stroke Rural Silver award
recognizes efforts to address the unique
health needs of rural communities
 LOWVILLE, NY─ People who live
in rural communities live an average of three years fewer than their urban
counterparts, have a 40% higher likelihood of developing heart disease and face
a 30% increased risk for stroke mortality — a gap that has grown over the
past two decades.[1],[2] Lewis County Health System is committed to
changing that.
Lewis County
Health System has received the American Heart Association’s Get
With The Guidelines® - Rural Stroke Silver award for efforts
to optimize stroke care and eliminate rural health care outcome disparities.
“Rural
communities deserve high-quality stroke care. I applaud our team for their
commitment to stroke care excellence and this achievement of elevating LCHS
from bronze to silver recognition this past year,” said Gerald Cayer, MPH,
LCHS Chief Executive Officer.
The American
Heart Association, the world’s leading nonprofit organization focused on
heart and brain health for all, recognizes the importance of health care
services provided to people living in rural areas by rural hospitals that
play a vital role in the initiation of timely evidence-based care. For that
reason, all rural hospitals participating in Get With
The Guidelines - Stroke are eligible to receive award
recognition based on a unique methodology focused on early acute stroke
performance metrics.
“We are proud
that our team at Lewis County Health System is being recognized for the
important work we do every day to improve the lives of people in Lewis
County who are affected by stroke, giving them the best possible chance of
recovery and survival,” said Marcy Teal, BSN, RN, LCHS Chief Nursing
Officer. “As a hospital in a rural community, we deal with extended
interfacility transportation times and limited staffing resources. We've
made it a goal to ensure those hurdles do not affect the standard of care
our stroke patients receive.”
The award
recognizes hospitals for their efforts toward acute stroke care excellence
demonstrated by composite score compliance to guideline-directed care for
intravenous thrombolytic therapy, timely hospital inter-facility transfer,
dysphagia screening, symptom timeline and deficit assessment documentation,
emergency medical services communication, brain imaging and stroke expert
consultation.
“Patients and
health care professionals in Lewis County face unique health care
challenges and opportunities,” said Karen E. Joynt Maddox, M.D., MPH,
volunteer expert for the American Heart Association, co-author on “Call to
Action: Rural Health: A Presidential Advisory From
the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association” and
co-director of the Center for Health Economics and Policy at the Institute
for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. “Lewis
County Health System has furthered this important work to improve care for
all Americans, regardless of where they live.”
[1] American Heart
Association. American Heart Association issues call to action for
addressing inequities in rural health. February 10, 2020. https://newsroom.heart.org/news/american-heart-association-issues-call-to-action-for-addressing-inequities-in-rural-health;
American Heart Association. Public Health AmeriCorps to address health
inequity in rural communities. April 6, 2022. https://newsroom.heart.org/news/public-health-americorps-to-address-health-inequity-in-rural-communities.
[1] Harrington R, et
al. Call to Action: Rural Health: A Presidential Advisory From the American Heart Association and American Stroke
Association. Circulation. 2020;141:e615–e644.
###
In submitted
photo: Lewis County
Emergency Department Nurses, Medical Director, and members of the Rural
Healthcare Outcomes team front row left to right Marcy Teal, Shannon Der,
Rebecca Keefer, Falicia Bacon, Charity Glenn, Randy Mullin. Back row left to right Georgie Murphy,
Emily Paulsen, Lucy Austin, Tracie Davoy, Dawn
Rennie, Devon Doll, and Dr. Mathis.
About Lewis
County Health System
Lewis Health
System offers inpatient and outpatient care services and a 24-hour
physician-staffed emergency department to meet the health needs of over
30,000 county residents and seasonal visitors. The system includes a 25-bed
critical access hospital, 160-bed nursing home, three specialty centers
(surgery, orthopedics, and women's health), internal medicine and family
practice clinics located in Beaver Falls, Copenhagen, Lowville, and Lyons
Falls, a school-based health clinic at South Lewis Central School, hospice,
and home health services.
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 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 14 million patients since
2001. For more information, visit heart.org.
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