The American Heart Association (AHA) and the American Stroke Association (ASA) have recognized eight Banner Health facilities in Arizona with the Get With The Guidelines® – Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement award.
These Banner facilities earned the coveted Quality award by meeting certain quality achievement measures and seamlessly implementing crucial programs and procedures such as stroke education, risk-reduction therapies and dysphagia screening:
- Banner Baywood Medical Center (Mesa)
- Banner Boswell Medical Center (Sun City)
- Banner Del E. Webb Medical Center (Sun City West)
- Banner Desert Medical Center (Mesa)
- Banner Estrella Medical Center (Phoenix)
- Banner Thunderbird Medical Center (Glendale)
- Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix
- Banner – University Medical Center Tucson
Receiving the highest recognition, Banner Del E. Webb and Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix qualified for recognition on the Target: Stroke Elite Plus Honor Roll. This acknowledgment indicates that the facility’s time to thrombolytic therapy was within 60 minutes in 75 percent or more of acute ischemic stroke patients treated 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) AND door-to-needle time within 45 minutes in 50 percent of acute ischemic stroke patients treated with IV tPA.
Banner Thunderbird, Banner Estrella and Banner Boswell gained qualification for recognition on the Target Stroke: Elite Honor Roll which denotes a facility’s time to thrombolytic therapy to within 60 minutes in 75 percent or more of acute ischemic stroke patients treated with IV tPA.
Banner Desert, Banner Baywood and Banner – University Medical Center Tucson qualify for recognition on the Target: Stroke Honor Roll. These hospitals met quality measures developed to reduce the time between the patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment to within 60 minutes in 50 percent or more of acute ischemic stroke patients treated with IV tPA.
Although patients benefit from the comprehensive list of guidelines, hospitals implementing the program also see value. Each participating facility in the program has access to clinical tools and resources, professional education opportunities and a competitive advantage in the health care marketplace. Since the program was started in 2003, 1,656 hospitals have entered more than 2 million patient records into the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke database, providing thorough research that is also accessible to all participating institutions.
According to the AHA and ASA, stroke strikes 795,000 Americans a year, leading to more than 137,000 fatalities. This translates into a stroke death every four minutes
Headquartered in Arizona, Banner Health is one of the largest nonprofit health care systems in the country. The system owns and operates 28 acute-care hospitals, Banner Health Network, Banner – University Medicine, Banner Medical Group, long-term care centers, outpatient surgery centers and an array of other services, including family clinics, home care and hospice services, pharmacies and a nursing registry. Banner Health is in seven states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada and Wyoming.
Get With The Guidelines® is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program that provides hospitals with the latest research-based guidelines. Developed with the goal of saving lives and hastening recovery, Get With The Guidelines has touched the lives of more than 5 million patients since 2001. For more information, visit heart.org/quality or heart.org/QualityMap
