Delray Beach, Fla. (June 2, 2016) – Delray Medical Center, part of the Advanced Neuroscience Network (ANN), earns the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award with Target: StrokeSM Honor Roll-Elite Plus. The 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.

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. Delray Medical Center’s achievement of the Target: Stroke Honor Roll-Elite Plus, the highest level available, means the stroke team treated 50 percent or more of acute ischemic stroke patients with IV tPA within 45 minutes of their arrival to the hospital. 

To earn the Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award, Delray Medical Center’s Comprehensive Stroke Center met 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.

“Delray Medical Center has long been known as a leader in developing processes that improve the quality of stroke care,” said Mark Bryan, hospital CEO. “These distinctions from the American Heart Association demonstrate the dedication and clinical skill of our stroke team to provide the best possible care for our community.”

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. 

ANN stroke centers have saved many lives due to their talented neuroscience teams and access to some of the most advanced diagnostic and interventional technology available to date. One of the most important factors in positive stroke outcomes is recognizing the warning signs and getting the patient to a hospital dedicated to treating stroke patients as quickly as possible.