St. Joseph Health Regional Hospital receives Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award with Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus

(Bryan, TX, June 29, 2016) ― St. Joseph Health Regional Hospital received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines^®-Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award with Target: Stroke Honor Roll^SM Elite Plus. This award recognizes the hospital’s commitment to ensuring that stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines established by the latest scientific evidence.

To receive the Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award, St. Joseph Health achieved at least 88 percent on seven of the eight Get With The Guidelines-Stroke achievement indicators for 12 consecutive months. Additionally, during that same period, St. Joseph averaged 88 percent compliance with all eight Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality measures. To qualify for this target, St. Joseph met quality measures designed to reduce the time between the patient’s arrival at the Emergency Department and treatment with the clot-busting tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke. When administered in the first three hours after the start of stroke symptoms, tPA has been shown to significantly reduce the effects of stroke and lessen the chance of permanent disability. These quality measures confirm that St. Joseph Health offers the current, evidence-based treatments with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability in stroke patients. “A stroke patient loses 1.9 million neurons each minute stroke treatment is delayed. For our team to achieve this milestone further demonstrates our commitment to delivering advanced stroke treatments quickly and safely to patients in the Brazos Valley,” said J. Bradley White, M.D., Ph.D., medical director for the Stroke Program at St. Joseph Health Regional Hospital.  “CHI St. Joseph continues to strive for excellence in the acute treatment of stroke patients. The recognition from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke further reinforces our team’s hard work.” In addition to the Silver Plus Quality Award, St. Joseph Health is also recognized as a Primary Stroke Center, or Comprehensive Stroke Center. This means the hospital offers a comprehensive program for the rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients who come into either our Regional Hospital or South College Station Emergency departments. ### About St. Joseph Health Established in 1936, St. Joseph Health is a faith-based, not-for-profit health system committed to excellence and compassion in caring for the mind, body and spirit while creating healthier communities. St. Joseph Health is comprised of five hospital facilities across the Brazos Valley, including Regional Hospital, the region’s highest level trauma center. St. Joseph Medical Group operates more than a dozen primary and specialty care clinics around the region, offering expert care, closer to home. St. Joseph Health is a part of Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI), one of the nation’s largest health systems. For more information, visit CHIStjoseph.org. Headquartered in Englewood, Colorado, CHI operates in 19 states and comprises more than 103 hospitals, including four academic medical centers and teaching hospitals; 30 critical-access facilities; community health services organizations; accredited nursing colleges; home health agencies; and other services that span the inpatient and outpatient continuum of care. For more information, visit CatholicHealthInitiatives.org.About Get With The Guidelines^® Get With The Guidelines^® is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program that provides hospitals with tools and resources to increase adherence to 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 6 million patients since 2001. For more information, visit heart.org.