Dignity Health St. John's Stroke Program Strikes "Gold"

Both St. John's Hospitals receive Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Awards

Dignity Health’s St. John’s Regional Medical Center (SJRMC) and St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital (SJPVH) are proud recipients of an American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Quality Achievement Award. Both hospitals have also earned a spot on the Target: StrokeSM Honor Roll.

SJRMC has been presented with the Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award and is also being recognized on the Target: Stroke Elite Plus Honor Roll. SJPVH is also a recipient of the Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award and has qualified for recognition on the Target: Stroke Elite Honor Roll. These awards recognize the hospitals’ commitment and success to ensuring that stroke patients receive the most appropriate stroke treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.

“With a stroke, every second counts, this award demonstrates our commitment to delivering quality care for stroke patients,” said Darren Lee, President and CEO of St. John’s Regional Medical Center and St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital. “To have our two facilities receive such high praise is tremendous for the communities we serve."

To receive the Gold Plus Quality Achievement Awards, hospitals must achieve 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke achievement indicators for at least 12 consecutive months and achieve 75 percent or higher compliance with five of eight Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality measures.

To qualify for the Target: Stroke Elite Plus Honor Roll and Target: Stroke Elite Honor Roll 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 acute ischemic stroke. If given intravenously in the first four and a half 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.

These quality measures are designed to help hospital teams follow the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients.

“These awards are a testament to the effort and commitment of the entire team to delivering advanced stroke treatment quickly and safely,” said Mani Nezhad, MD, Medical Director of the St. John’s Stroke Program.

Both hospitals were also recently re-certified as Primary Stroke Centers by The Joint Commission. Our centers received the recognition after completing an on-site evaluation with zero deficiencies and demonstrating compliance with nationally developed standards for stroke care.

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.

About Get With The Guidelines®
Get With The Guidelines® is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program that provides hospitals with tools and resources to increase adherence to the latest research-based guidelines. Developed with the goal of saving lives and hastening recovery, Get With The Guidelines® has touched the lives of more than 6 million patients since 2001. For more information, visit heart.org.