CHI Health Good Samaritan And St. Francis Recognized For Quality Stroke Care

CHI Health Good Samaritan and CHI Health St. Francis, the region’s designated Primary Stroke Centers, have once again received the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines® Stroke Gold Plus achievement award. The honor recognizes the commitment of both hospitals to ensuring area stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally-recognized guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.

St. Francis received Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus recognition and Good Samaritan achieved Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite status. To qualify, both hospitals consistently met quality measures developed to reduce the time between a 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. 

The sister-hospitals were also awarded the Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll for their targeted approach to providing quality care for at-risk patients with diabetes.

Good Samaritan, for the first time, received the Get With The Guidelines® Stroke Rural Bronze award. The honor recognizes the hospital’s efforts to address the unique health needs of rural communities and eliminate health care outcome disparities. St. Francis is categorized as an urban hospital and therefore not eligible for the award.

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 and nearly 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.