The American Heart Association has recently honored Long Island Community Hospital with two awards recognizing quality achievements in the hospital’s Stroke and Cardiac Catheterization Programs.
For the tenth year in a row, Long Island Community Hospital has earned the American Heart Association|American Stroke Association (AHA|ASA) 2020 Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus, Target: Stroke Elite award. This year’s award also included the additional distinction of Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll Award. The Gold Plus designation is only awarded to those hospitals who have met specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients at a set level for a designated period. These measures include evaluation of the proper use of medications and other stroke treatments with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. The additional designation of Target Stroke Elite recognizes hospitals that meet quality standards designed to reduce the time between arrival at the hospital and treatment with the clot-buster tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA. To qualify for the Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll Award, the hospital also had to meet additional quality measures over a one year period to achieve a qualifying “Overall Diabetes Cardiovascular Initiative Composite Score.”
This is the first year that the hospital’s Cardiac Catheterization team has earned the AHA’s Mission: Lifeline® STEMI Receiving Center Silver Award for 2020 in recognition for their timely treatment of heart attack victims. Each year, over 250,000 people experience an ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), the deadliest type of heart attack, caused by a blockage of blood flow to the heart. To prevent death, it is critical to restore blood flow as quickly as possible, either by mechanically opening the blocked vessel or by providing clot-busting medication. The designation is only given to hospitals who adhere to strict criteria and standards of performance for rapid treatment to re-establish blood flow to those blocked vessels in heart attack patients.
“These latest quality achievement awards are the result of our hospital-wide commitment to provide the highest level of quality care services to the community,” states Long Island Community Hospital President and CEO Richard T. Margulis. “Both of these remarkable achievements would not be possible without the strong team partnership that exists between our Emergency Department, our Cardiac Catheterization and our Cardiovascular teams.”
Long Island Community Hospital has served this richly diverse region as a patient-first community hospital for more than 60 years. We are 100% focused on the community and committed to providing quality care with our greatly enhanced services reflected through the Knapp Cardiac Care Center – our highly advanced heart disease diagnosis and treatment facility, our new modern surgical pavilion, our level III trauma center, and our high-touch services including women’s imaging, sleep laboratory, wound care and more. These services are delivered with the highest level of compassion by our LI Community Hospital staff – Long Islanders with an unmistakable mix of courage and heart who care about the people right here in our community and whose sole purpose is to provide personalized comfort.
