Mission Hospital receives stroke award

Press release:

Mission Hospital is pleased to announce that it has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines® Stroke Gold Plus Achievement Award with Target: Stroke SM Honor Roll Elite Plus status. This coveted recognition means that Mission Hospital is among the subset of hospitals across the United States that offer the very best research-based stroke care.  Said another way, the standard of care provided to patients at Mission Hospital is reflective of the nation’s most current research and best practices on stroke care.

In order to be recognized, a hospital must meet 85% or more of the Guidelines’ markers of success for two or more consecutive 12-month periods and reach a 75% or greater rate of compliance with five of eight established Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality requirements. In order to be included on the Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus roster, Mission Hospital met measurable quality benchmarks that pertain to a shorter time between a stroke patient’s arrival at the hospital and the administration of the clot buster drug tissue plasminogen activator, also known as tPA. This is the only medication that is FDA-approved for the treatment of the most common type of stroke, ischemic stroke. Since time to treatment has the greatest impact on patient outcome, it is paramount that this drug be given within no more than three hours of a stroke’s onset in order to optimize the chances that a patient will suffer fewer complications and have the lowest possible risk of permanent disability or death from the stroke.

In addition to causing widespread disability among affected adults, The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association ranks stroke as the fifth most common cause of death in the United States.  Paul Heidenreich, M.D., M.S., serves as National Chairman of the Get With The Guidelines® Steering Committee and is a Professor of Medicine at Stanford University. He declared these honors signal that Mission Hospital has an unwavering commitment to providing the best – and most rapid – stroke care. “Research has shown there are benefits to patients who are treated at hospitals that have adopted the Get With The Guidelines program,” he added.

Jill Hoggard Green, PhD, RN, COO of Mission Health and President of Mission Hospital shared that, along with her pride in Mission Hospital’s expert medical team and supporting caregivers who help stroke patients from diagnosis through treatment and beyond, this designation holds extra meaning – and value. “Not only are we in the ‘stroke belt’ of the United States, which consists of a group of southeastern states whose residents experience a disproportionate rate of stroke and stroke death, but western North Carolina’s patient population is older, sicker, and more economically challenged than the state and national averages. This combination of factors compels us to do all that we can to see our patients through a stroke diagnosis and its aftermath by using the most advanced tools and treatments available. The care we offer is better because of our alignment with the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association and the Get With The Guidelines® program,” she stated.

The combination of expert treatment and compassionate care that Mission Hospital is known for, and the research-driven stroke care protocol that constitutes the Get With The Guidelines Program® contribute to a level of care that fuels better patient outcomes and lowers our patients’ risk levels for recurrent stroke.