St. Luke’s Wins National Awards for Stroke Treatment

St. Luke’s University Health Network has received top honors from the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association.

The network has received the associations’ Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award with Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus. This recognizes a provider’s commitment to giving the most appropriate stroke treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.

“The American Heart Association and American Stroke Association recognize St. Luke’s for its commitment to stroke care,” said Dr. Paul Heidenreich, national chairman of the Get With The Guidelines Steering Committee and Professor of Medicine at Stanford University. “Research has shown there are benefits to patients who are treated at hospitals that have adopted the Get With The Guidelines program.”

St. Luke’s hospitals were honored individually as follows:

Allentown and Bethlehem Campuses- Get With The Guidelines - Stroke Gold Plus Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus- first time receiving Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus Award

Gold Plus Recognition: “Hospitals receiving Get With The Guidelines Gold Plus Achievement Award have reached an aggressive goal of treating  stroke patients with 85 percent or higher compliance to core standard levels of care as outlined by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association for 24 consecutive months. In addition, those hospitals have demonstrated 75 percent compliance to seven out of ten stroke quality measures during the 12-month period.”

Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus: “Hospitals achieving Time to Intravenous Thrombolytic Therapy 60 minutes in 75 percent or more of applicable acute ischemic stroke patients treated with IV tPA AND door-to-needle time Time to Intravenous Thrombolytic Therapy within 45 minutes in 50 percent of applicable acute ischemic stroke patients treated with IV tPA to improve quality of patient care and outcomes.”

Miners Campus- Get With The Guidelines - Stroke Gold Plus Target: Stroke Honor Roll – first time receiving gold and Target: Stroke Honor Roll

Target: Stroke Honor Roll: “Hospitals achieving Time to Intravenous Thrombolytic Therapy 60 minutes in 50 percent or more of applicable acute ischemic stroke patients to improve quality of patient care and outcomes.”

Warren Campus- Get With The Guidelines - Stroke Gold Plus – first time receiving Gold Plus Award

Anderson Campus- Get With The Guidelines - Stroke Silver Plus Target: Stroke Honor Roll – first time receiving Silver and Target: Stroke Honor Roll

Silver Plus Recognition: “Hospitals receiving Get With The Guidelines Silver Plus Achievement Award have reached an aggressive goal of treating stroke patients with 85 percent or higher compliance to core standard levels of care as outlined by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association for 12 consecutive months. In addition, those hospitals have demonstrated 75 percent compliance to seven out of ten stroke quality measures during the 12-month period.”

Quakertown Campus- Get With The Guidelines - Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement award – first time receiving Silver Plus 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, someone dies of a stroke every four minutes, and nearly 800,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.

A stroke patient loses 1.9 million neurons each minute stroke treatment is delayed. This recognition further demonstrates St. Luke’s commitment to delivering advanced stroke treatments to patients quickly and safely.

Get With The Guidelines 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 has impacted more than 3 million patients since 2003.

Media Contact

Sam Kennedy, Corporate Communications Director, 484-526-4134, samuel.kennedy@sluhn.org

About St. Luke’s

Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a non-profit, regional, fully integrated and nationally recognized network providing services at seven hospitals and more than 270 outpatient sites. The network’s service area includes Lehigh, Northampton, Carbon, Schuylkill, Bucks, Montgomery, Berks and Monroe counties in Pennsylvania and in Warren County in New Jersey. Dedicated to advancing health education, St. Luke’s operates the nation’s oldest School of Nursing and 22 graduate medical educational programs and is considered a major teaching hospital, the only one in the region. In partnership with Temple University, St. Luke’s created the region’s first Medical School. Repeatedly, including 2017, St. Luke’s has earned Truven’s 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation as well as 50 Top Cardiovascular program in addition to other honors for clinical excellence. St. Luke’s is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of St. Luke’s information technology applications such as electronic medical records, telehealth, online scheduling and pricing information. St. Luke’s is also recognized as one of the state’s lowest cost providers in comparison to major teaching hospitals and other health systems.

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