Saint Francis Healthcare was recently recognized by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association for its success in implementing a higher standard of stroke care by ensuring patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted standards and recommendations.
In improving its stroke tactics and recovery time, the hospital was awarded the highest recognition based on Get With The Guidelines’ quality measures, the Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award with Target: Stroke Honor Roll–Elite Plus.
“The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association recognizes Saint Francis Healthcare for its commitment to stroke care,” said Paul Heidenreich, M.D., M.S., national chairman of the Get With The Guidelines Steering Committee and Professor of Medicine at Stanford University. “Research has shown that patients benefit when treated at hospitals that have adopted the Get With The Guidelines program.”
Saint Francis provides rapid and top-quality stroke care, including a door-to-needle time of 45 minutes in at least half of all stroke patients when administering the tPA drug. They have complied with 85 percent or higher adherence to all the Get With The Guidelines–Stroke achievement indicators for two or more consecutive 12-month periods and achieved 75 percent or higher compliance with five of the program’s eight quality measures.
Saint Francis was officially awarded its certificate on Wednesday, July 6 by John Pierson, Executive Director of Delaware AHA, and Alex Kuhn, Senior Director of Quality and Systems Improvement for AHA.
“The care that Saint Francis is providing is saving lives,” Pierson said. “We thank the hospital and staff immensely for following the AHA guidelines and using them to improve what they do, every day.”
