For the fifth 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.

To receive the Stroke Gold Plus Awards, the hospital achieved 85 percent or higher adherence to all AHA quality & achievement indicators for 24 months (two consecutive 12-month intervals), and achieved 75 percent or higher compliance with five of eight Get With the Guidelines- Stroke Quality measures.

To achieve the association’s Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus, 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. If given intravenously in the first three hours after the start of stroke symptoms, tPA has been shown to significantly reduce the effects of stroke and lessen the chance of permanent disability. Mercy Hospital earned the award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients at a set level for a designated period.

“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 C.J. Urlaub, Mercy Hospital President & CEO. “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 achieved reaccreditation as a Comprehensive Stroke Center by The Joint Commission in November 2015, following a rigorous onsite survey process.

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.

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