Banner Health receives prestigious stroke award

Several Banner Health facilities in Arizona have received a prestigious stroke award in recognition of their ability to better diagnose and treat stroke patients, to reduce death and disability among patients and to speed recovery.

Banner Del E. Webb Medical Center, Banner Desert Medical Center, Banner Baywood Medical Center, Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center, Banner Boswell Medical Center and Banner Thunderbird Medical Center received the Get With The Guidelines - Stroke Gold-Plus Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures to the highest level, as outlined by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association to treat stroke patients.

The Get With The Guidelines stroke program provides hospital teams with the most up-to-date, research-based guidelines to help achieve better outcomes and a higher quality of life for stroke patients. The Banner facilities earned the award by meeting certain quality achievement measures, which include aggressive use of medications and risk-reduction therapies.

"Banner is dedicated to improving the quality of stroke care and the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's Get With The Guidelines – Stroke helps us achieve that goal," said Jacqueline Carter, MD, stroke program at Banner Desert Medical Center and Banner Thunderbird Medical Center. "With this award, our hospitals demonstrate our commitment to ensure the most up-to-date, research-based clinical guidelines are utilized by our stroke teams. Our approach to stroke care supports our mission to make a difference in people's lives through excellent patient care."

The six Banner Health facilities also received the association's Target: Stroke Honor Roll for meeting stroke quality measures that reduce the time between hospital arrival and treatment with the clot buster tPA, the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke. People who suffer a stroke who receive the drug within three hours of the onset of symptoms may recover quicker and are less likely to suffer severe disability.

The Get With The Guidelines – Stroke, also helps Banner staff implement prevention measures, which include educating stroke patients to manage their risk factors, to be aware of warning signs for stroke and to ensure they take their medications properly.

"The care our patients receive is our number one priority," said Evelyn Smith, stroke program coordinator for Banner Desert Medical Center. "We provide the most up to date care using research based guidelines with the goal of a speedy recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients."

According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the number four case of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the United States. On average, someone suffers a stroke every 40 seconds; someone dies of a stroke every four minutes and 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.