Banner – University Medical Center Tucson and its Comprehensive Stroke Center has been recognized by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association for its diagnosis and care of stroke patients.

Banner – University Medical Center Tucson earned the association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award which qualified the hospital for the following additional recognitions: Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite award, the Target: Stroke Honor Roll Advanced Therapy and the Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll.

The Joint Commission-certified Comprehensive Stroke Center at Banner – University Medical Center Tucson sees an average of 800 stroke patients per year and is the only academic medical hospital in Southern Arizona conducting stroke research.  A stroke, sometimes called a brain attack, occurs when a clot blocks blood supply to the brain or when a blood vessel in the brain bursts.

The stroke center delivers quality care to southern Arizona, 24 hours a day, seven days a week and includes experts from Banner-University Medicine and the University of Arizona Health Sciences. Multidisciplinary expertise includes specialized cerebrovascular neurologists, neurointerventionalists and neurosurgeons, specialized neuroscience nurses and staff, neuro-intensive care and stroke units, advanced imaging, post hospital care, including a support group, and access to stroke research and clinical trials.

“We are proud to have the quality of our work recognized by the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association. Our team is firmly committed to delivering quality care dedicated to providing the most comprehensive, research-based treatments to reduce death and disability, while speeding patient recovery,” said Mohammad El-Ghanem, MD, Banner–University Medicine neuroendovascular physician, co-medical director of Banner-UMC Tucson Stroke Center and University of Arizona assistant professor of neurology and medical imaging.    

The Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award recognizes hospitals who earned the award by meeting specific quality-achievement measures for diagnosing and treating stroke patients. Hospitals were evaluated on their proper use of medications and other evidence-based stroke treatments to speed recovery and reduce death and disability. In addition, hospitals were also recognized for teaching patients about health management, scheduling follow-up visits and providing other transitional care.

The AHA’s Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite award signifies that the hospital has met quality measures to reduce the time between the patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with the clot-buster tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA within 60 minutes for most of its stroke patients. The Target: Stroke Honor Roll Advanced Therapy signifies that the hospital has met quality measures to reduce treatment time to clot retrieval in half of its patients within 90 minutes for direct arrivals and 60 minutes for transfers.

The AHA’s Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll award recognizes quality measures that have been implemented for diabetes and cardiovascular care.