Emory Saint Joseph's Hospital is proud to announce that the Joint Commission, the nation's largest independent health care evaluation body, and the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, have re-certified Emory Saint Joseph's Primary Stroke Center for two more years. Primary Stroke Center certification recognizes compliance with stroke-related standards and requirements, including program management, the delivery of critical care and performance improvement. Emory Saint Joseph's multidisciplinary stroke team was recognized for best practices in the following areas:

• Providing stroke awareness and education through several community outreach programs in assisted living facilities;
• Administering tPA for ischemic patients within 60 minutes (known as door-to-needle time)
• Rapid Response Team, which responds to the needs of each stroke patient;
• Pastoral care consultations to assess the needs of patients and their families;
• Working collaboratively with Grady Memorial Hospital and the Emory MBNA Stroke Center at Emory University Hospital;
• Structured interdisciplinary bedside rounding (SIBR) conducted on the hospital's stroke unit that involves a collaborative health care team meeting with patients in their rooms to discuss their daily plan of care; and
• Establishment of EMS University, a program that provides pre-hospital training and education about stroke patients for area EMS services. Additionally, the hospital offers the Advanced Stroke Life Support program, an eight hour class for nurses that enhances critical thinking skills and the treatment/assessment of patients from pre-arrival through discharge.

"This designation is a reflection of our dedicated team and the exceptional care we provide to stroke patients, and Emory Saint Joseph's remains committed to advancing our stroke care even further in the community," says Dane Peterson, interim CEO of Emory Saint Joseph's Hospital.

In addition to the Joint Commission re-certification, Emory Saint Joseph's was also recently recognized on the "Target: Stroke Honor Roll" by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association (AHA/ASA), meaning 50 percent of ischemic stroke patients arriving at the hospital received tPA (door-to-needle time) within 60 minutes of arriving. The AHA/ASA also recognized Emory Saint Joseph's with the "Get with the Guidelines-Stroke" Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award for treating stroke patients with 85 percent or higher adherence to all "Get with the Guidelines-Stroke" achievement indicators for two or more consecutive 12-month periods.

Since 2009, Emory Saint Joseph's has been certified as a Primary Stroke Center, and is designed to provide emergent and acute stroke care. The team includes ancillary, emergency and neurovascular services, a clinical decision unit and a neurovascular/stroke unit, which is dedicated to helping patients achieve the best possible outcome.

"The passion for stroke from our team members is unsurpassed, and the enormous contributions from every discipline make the program so unique. Our team works extremely hard to meet their metrics and provide quality care for our patients, and this includes the participation of our non-stroke units as well," says Regina Minter, Quality Management Specialist.

Stroke is the number five cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the United States, according to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. 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.