Berkshire Medical Center Honored with Five Quality Achievement Awards

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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Berkshire Medical Center again has received several Get With The Guidelines Awards for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association for the treatment of patients who suffer strokes, heart failure, atrial fibrillation/flutter (AFIB), cardiac arrests or heart attacks.

For 2019, BMC received the following awards: Get With the Guidelines-Stroke Gold Plus with Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite, Heart Failure Gold Plus with Target: Heart Failure Honor Roll, AFIB Gold, Resuscitation Gold (Adult) and Mission: Lifeline NSTEMI (Non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction) Silver Referring Center.

The Get With the Guidelines and Mission: Lifeline programs were developed with the goal to save lives and speed recovery by encouraging hospitals to consistently follow the most up-to-date research-based guidelines for treatment. Get With the Guidelines programs use evidence-based metrics to measure the quality of in-hospital care, while Mission: Lifeline extends to pre-hospital treatment, through EMS, to evaluate the full continuum of patient care.

"Berkshire Medical Center is dedicated to helping our patients have the best possible outcomes and implementing the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines programs help us accomplish this by making it easier for our teams to put proven knowledge and guidelines to work on a daily basis," said Dr. Gray Ellrodt, BMC's chief quality officer and chair of medicine.

"We are pleased to recognize Berkshire Medical Center for their commitment in following these guidelines," said Dr. Lee H. Schwamm, national chairperson of the Quality Oversight Committee and executive vice chair of Neurology and director of Acute Stroke Services at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.


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Dalton Planning Board OKs Gravel Company Permit

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
DALTON, Mass. — The Planning Board approved the renewal of Nichols Sand and Gravel's special permit for earth removal. 
 
The company, located at 190 Cleveland Road, operates a gravel pit there. 
 
The hours of operation will remain 7 to 4 p.m. The commission approved owner Paul Nichols' request to allow trucks to depart the property in either direction. 
 
Nichols has to apply for renewal of the special permit every year. The previous permit required the truck to exit the property to the right.
 
It makes more sense to go left if truck drivers have to go to the Pittsfield area, Nichols said. He has talked to the residents in the area and they are agreeable to the change. 
 
Former residents requested this stipulation nearly 16 years ago to reduce the number of trucks using the residential street to avoid disturbing the quality of life and neighborhood. 
 
There weren't any residents present during the meeting who expressed concerns regarding this change.
 
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