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“Time is brain when it comes to stroke care,” said Catholic Health Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Jason Golbin, DO, MBA. “Research has shown there are benefits to patients who are treated at hospitals that have adopted the Get With the Guidelines program. Based on this recent honor from the American Heart Association, our hospitals are some of the best in the country for stroke care.”

When Diana Parson suddenly fell to floor as she prepared to feed her newborn baby, her husband Patrick knew something was wrong. He drove her to Mercy Hospital where she was treated for a stroke and transferred to St. Francis Hospital & Heart Center®. As Elise Sheridan complained that her hand felt numb, her husband James looked at her face and immediately recognized the signs of a stroke. He quickly called an ambulance, and Elise was transported from their Wantagh home to St. Joseph Hospital. There she was stabilized and swiftly sent to the Stroke and Brain Aneurysm Center of Long Island at Good Samaritan Hospital. 

In each instance, the patients were immediately taken to a Catholic Health hospital where they received best stroke care available, and as a result, made full recoveries. 

It is that high-level of care that earned all six Catholic Health hospital recognition from the American Heart Association for excellence in stroke care. St. Charles Hospital was named a Stroke Gold Plus facility and St. Francis Hospital, Good Samaritan Hospital, Mercy Hospital, St. Catherine of Siena Hospital and St. Joseph Hospital each garnered Stroke Gold Plus with Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Honors. The awards highlight a hospital’s commitment to providing the most appropriate stroke treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines.

Hospitals must achieve 85 percent or higher adherence in all Get With the Guidelines Stroke achievement indicators for 2 or more consecutive 12-month periods and achieve 75 percent or higher compliance with 5 of 8 Get With The Guidelines Stroke quality measures to receive the Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award.

To qualify for the Target: Stroke 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 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. 

“Time is brain when it comes to stroke care,” said Catholic Health Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Jason Golbin, DO, MBA. “Research has shown there are benefits to patients who are treated at hospitals that have adopted the Get With the Guidelines program. Based on this recent honor from the American Heart Association, our hospitals are some of the best in the country for stroke care.”

In addition to the stroke care honors, each Catholic Health hospital also earned Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll recognition, which is a new area of distinction from the American Heart Association highlighting facilities with high performance in diabetes care. 

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