Eddy Scurlock Stroke Center receives DNV's Comprehensive Stroke Center certification

The Methodist Neurological Institute's Eddy Scurlock Stroke Center, the largest stroke unit in Houston's Texas Medical Center, is the first hospital in the United States to receive a comprehensive stroke center certification by DNV Healthcare Inc.

DNV's Comprehensive Stroke Center certification was recently approved as a nationally-recognized program, and is based on recommendations by the Brain Attack Coalition, American Stroke Association, and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

"For the past four years, our stroke team has used 13 quality measures under consideration for a national comprehensive stroke center model. It's gratifying to know that these measures are included in DNV's certification criteria, and that our patients, along with those at all other nationally-recognized comprehensive centers, will receive the same standard of care," said David C. Chiu, M.D., medical director of Methodist's stroke center.

Chiu, associate professor of neurology, Weill Cornell Medical College, authored a paper on proposed comprehensive stroke center criteria in a 2008 paper in Critical Pathways in Cardiology. The criteria, now included in DNV's certification, includes timeliness of brain imaging, stroke severity score documentation, and measures including morbidity and mortality rates for stroke, cerebral aneurysm, and diagnostic and therapeutic imaging.

Methodist has held an advanced primary stroke center designation since 2005.

Approximately 795,000 people experience a new or recurrent stroke each year, making stroke the nation's fourth leading cause of death. On average, someone suffers a stroke ever 45 second and someone dies of a stroke every 3.1 minutes. Stroke is a leading cause of serious, long-term disability in the United States.