Mercy Comprehensive Stroke Center Achieves AHA’s Highest Level Recognition for 7th Year in a Row

Aug 16, 2019News & PR, Stroke

For the seventh consecutive year, the Mercy Hospital Comprehensive Stroke Center has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines® – Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award and Target: Honor Roll Elite Plus—the AHA’s highest level of hospital recognition—for its commitment to quality stroke treatment based on nationally recognized, research-based guidelines for care.

Mercy Hospital earned the award by meeting and exceeding seven designated quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients for a period of 24 consecutive months. These measures include evaluation of the proper use of medications and other stroke treatments aligned with the most up-to-date, evidence-based standards of care with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. Hospitals are also reviewed for pre-discharge procedures that provide patients with education on managing their health, scheduling a follow-up visit, as well as other care transition interventions.

To achieve the association’s Target: Stroke Elite PlusSM award, 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.

Mercy Hospital’s Dedication to Quality Stroke Care

“With a stroke, every minute counts, and the Gold Plus Quality Award demonstrates Mercy Hospital’s commitment to being one of the top hospitals in the country for providing excellent, proven stroke care,” said Eddie Bratko, President of Mercy Hospital.  “This recognition from the Get With The Guidelines program further reinforces our team’s hard work and ongoing efforts to deliver advanced stroke treatments to patients quickly and safely.”

In 2013, Mercy Hospital became the first hospital in Western New York and among the first in New York State to be named a Comprehensive Stroke Center by The Joint Commission, offering 24/7 emergency care with specially trained physicians and medical personnel, advanced imaging capabilities and specially-equipped operating facilities to diagnose and treat the most complex stroke cases. The hospital was re-accredited as a Comprehensive Stroke Center by The Joint Commission in 2018, the result of a rigorous review and survey process that the hospital undergoes every two years.

According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the No. 5 cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the United States. On average, someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke every 40 seconds, someone dies of a stroke every four minutes, and nearly 800,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.