St. Joseph Medical Center has again earned the Get With The Guidelines®–Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. This award recognizes St. Joseph’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care by ensuring that stroke patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted guidelines.
“This award shows we are doing what evidence-based research shows is best for stroke patients,” explains Kathleen Henderson, RN, MN, ACNS-BC, stroke program coordinator. “The guidelines are aimed at reducing death and disability and improving the lives of stroke patients. Time is critical in the treatment of stroke. This award shows St. Joseph is one of the top hospitals in the country in providing aggressive, proven stroke care.”
This is the second time the Stroke Center has earned the award. To earn the award, St. Joseph achieved an 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality Achievement indicators for two or more consecutive 12-month intervals.
According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is one of the leading causes of death and serious, long-term disability in the United States. On average, someone suffers a stroke every 40 seconds; someone dies of a stroke every four minutes; and 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.