Adventist Health Hanford earns national recognition for efforts to improve stroke treatment
The American Heart Association presents Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Gold Plus award for commitment to prioritizing quality care for stroke patients
HANFORD – Adventist Health Hanford has received the American Heart Association’s Gold Plus Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Quality Achievement Award for its commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines. Last year, the hospital received the Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award.
Get With The Guidelines-Stroke was developed to assist healthcare professionals in providing the most up-to-date, research-based guidelines for treating stroke patients.
“In our journey towards being a top decile performer in quality of care, Adventist Health Hanford is dedicated to improving the quality of stroke care,” said Dr. Gurvinder Kaur, medical officer for Adventist Health in the Central Valley. “The American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines® program helps us achieve that goal. At Adventist Health Hanford, we care about our patients. That’s why we’ve made a commitment to turn treatment guidelines into lifelines.”
Each year program participants apply for the award recognition by demonstrating how their organization has committed to providing quality care for stroke patients. In addition to following treatment guidelines, participants also provide education to patients to help them manage their health and rehabilitation once at home.
Adventist Health Hanford also received the Association’s Target: StrokeSM Honor Roll award. To qualify for this recognition, hospitals must meet quality measures developed to reduce the time between the patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with the clot-buster tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke.
Additionally, Adventist Health Hanford received the Association’s Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll award. To qualify for this recognition, hospitals must meet quality measures developed with more than 90% of compliance for 12 consecutive months for the “Overall Diabetes Cardiovascular Initiative Composite Score.”
Dr. Kaur says the rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations in the Central Valley should not deter patients from seeking emergency care if experiencing stroke symptoms, such as drooping of the face, weakness in the arms, or difficulty speaking. “Patients should not be afraid to receive care in the hospital,” says Kaur. “We can assure our communities that we always isolate suspected COVID-19 patients from our other patients and follow state and federal guidelines to keep everyone safe.”
Stroke is the No. 5 cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the U.S. On average, someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke every 40 seconds, and nearly 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year. Early stroke detection and treatment are key to improving survival, minimizing disability and speeding recovery times.
