Mercy Medical Center Redding Receives Quality Stroke Care Award

Mercy Medical Center Redding is proud to be a recipient of the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Achievement Award with Target: StrokeSM Honor Roll Elite Plus.

This award recognizes the hospital’s commitment to providing the most appropriate stroke treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.

“A stroke patient loses 1.9 million neurons each minute stroke treatment is delayed. This recognition further demonstrates our commitment to delivering advanced stroke treatments to patients quickly and safely,” said Kevin Baird, Mercy Medical Center Redding’s RN Stroke Service Coordinator. “Dignity Health continues to strive for excellence in the acute treatment of stroke patients. The recognition from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association further reinforces our team’s hard work here at Mercy Medical Center Redding.”

Hospitals must achieve 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke achievement indicators for two or more consecutive 12-month periods and achieve 75 percent or higher compliance with five of eight Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality measures to receive the Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award.

To qualify for the 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 Medical Center Redding 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.

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.

“The American Heart Association and American Stroke Association recognize Mercy Medical Center Redding for its commitment to stroke care,” said Paul Heidenreich, M.D., M.S., national chairman of the Get With The Guidelines Steering Committee and Professor of Medicine at Stanford University. “Research has shown there are benefits to patients who are treated at hospitals that have adopted the Get With The Guidelines program.”

Get With The Guidelines®-S puts the expertise of the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association to work for hospitals nationwide, helping hospital care teams ensure the care provided to patients is aligned with the latest research-based guidelines. Developed with the goal to save lives and improve recovery time, Get With The Guidelines®-S has impacted more than 3 million patients since 2003.

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 Mercy Medical Center Redding

Mercy Medical Center Redding offers comprehensive health care to nearly 300,000 residents in a six-county region.  It is one of only two Level II trauma centers north of Sacramento and houses the only Level II neonatal ICU in Shasta County.  Mercy Medical Center Redding is a 267-bed regional medical center providing inpatient and outpatient services as well as specialized cardiovascular care, stroke care, orthopedics, neurological surgery, comprehensive cancer care, maternity care, and da Vinci robotic surgery.  In addition, the hospital’s network of care includes Mercy Home Health and Hospice, Golden Umbrella Adult Day Health Care, and Shasta Senior Nutrition Program, which serves nearly 72,000 meals a year.  Mercy Medical Center Redding is a Dignity Health Hospital sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy of Auburn, along with St. Elizabeth Community Hospital in Red Bluff and Mercy Medical Center Mt. Shasta.

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.