Oroville Hospital has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award with Target: StrokeSM Honor Roll. The award recognizes the hospital’s continued commitment and success at providing quick and appropriate treatment to stroke patients.
To qualify for the Target: Stroke Honor Roll, hospitals must meet quality measures developed to reduce the time between the patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment 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.
“Oroville Hospital has received the highest award for stroke treatment since the program’s inception in 2011,” said Robert J. Wentz, President and CEO. “We are extremely proud of the exceptional care provided by the stroke team and hospital staff. Our goal is to continue to excel and provide the highest level of care to patients.”
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recommends providing intravenous tPA treatment within three hours after the onset of stroke symptoms to reduce the effects of stroke and lessen the chance of permanent disability. Oroville Hospital’s goal is to provide tPA within 60 minutes of arrival to further increase positive patient outcomes.
“Oroville Hospital’s comprehensive stroke program was developed in 2011,” said Matthew Fine, M.D., Chief Medical Officer and Director of Patient Safety. “We have such a large community and it was important to hospital administrators and staff to be able to treat stroke patients in a timely manner. Research has shown that immediate treatment improves patient outcomes greatly.”
According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the number five cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the United States. 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.
“Every minute counts when it comes to stroke treatment,” said Mary Jarschke, R.N., S.C.R.N., Stroke Program Coordinator. “Recognizing the signs and symptoms of stroke is crucial because every minute treatment is delayed equates to 1.9 million neurons lost. Patients treated at our hospital benefit from the knowledge and expertise of our stroke-certified and collaborative team.”
Hospital employees undergo rigorous training each year to recognize the signs and symptoms of stroke. Patients that arrive with stroke-like symptoms will immediately be evaluated and treated. This care extends beyond the emergency room and stroke patients are provided appropriate rehabilitation to help them return to the highest functioning level they are able to obtain.
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About Oroville Hospital
Oroville Hospital is a community hospital dedicated to always providing the finest personalized healthcare to Oroville and the surrounding foothill and valley communities by offering a wide range of integrated services from prevention through treatment to wellness.
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 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/qualityor heart.org/QualityMap