Local AdventHealth facilities receive the highest national quality award for stroke care

All six AdventHealth hospitals in Flagler, Lake and Volusia counties received the Get With The Guidelines® Stroke Gold Plus award from the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association.

This is the highest national quality award for stroke care and recognizes AdventHealth’s exceptional clinical expertise.

Heart disease and stroke are the No. 1 and No. 5 causes of death in the U.S., respectively. Every 40 seconds, someone in the U.S. has a stroke or heart attack.

“When it comes to treating people who have experienced a stroke, every minute counts and we are proud of our clinicians for their dedication to prompt diagnosis and evidence-based care,” said Dr. Stephen Knych, chief medical officer for the AdventHealth operations in Flagler, Lake and Volusia counties. “This national recognition is a great honor, but the true cause for celebration is what this award represents. Our teams are consistently delivering excellent clinical care during these serious medical emergencies, which leads to shorter hospital stays, fewer complications, and better long-term outcomes for patients and their families."

In addition, the AdventHealth facilities also received multiple other recognitions from the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association.

• All AdventHealth facilities in Flagler, Lake and Volusia counties received the Target: Stroke Elite Honor Roll award, with the exception of AdventHealth Fish Memorial. The Orange City hospital received an even higher level of recognition, the Target: Stroke Elite Plus Honor Roll designation. This accolade recognizes the team for surpassing national benchmarks and reducing the time between a patient’s arrival to the hospital and treatment with the clot-buster tPA (tissue plasminogen activator), the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke.

• AdventHealth Daytona Beach also received the Target: Stroke Advanced Therapy Honor Roll in recognition of the hospital’s national excellence in Interventional Neuroradiology (INR) for thrombolytic therapy. This type of stroke treatment helps break up, dissolve and retrieve blood clots that cause strokes. AdventHealth Daytona Beach launched its INR program in November 2022 and is the only AdventHealth facility in the area to provide this treatment.

• All AdventHealth hospitals also received the Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll, an accolade they’ve earned annually since the recognition was first established in 2021. Patients with Type 2 diabetes are a critical high-risk population and this award recognizes the clinical teams at AdventHealth for excellence in providing patients with Type 2 diabetes the most up-to-date, evidence-based care when hospitalized with cardiovascular disease or stroke.

“We are pleased to recognize AdventHealth for its commitment to caring for those in their community who need cardiovascular care,” said John Warner, M.D., FAHA, past president of the American Heart Association and CEO of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. “Hospitals that follow the American Heart Association’s quality improvement protocols often see improved patient outcomes, fewer readmissions and lower mortality rates – a win for health care systems, families and communities.”

On a related note, Healthgrades recently recognized AdventHealth Daytona Beach and AdventHealth Waterman for delivering superior patient outcomes in coronary intervention procedures, including angioplasty with a stent.

Additionally, AdventHealth Daytona Beach is the only hospital in Florida to earn both the prestigious five-star rating in clinical quality from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and 23 consecutive “A” grades from Leapfrog for patient safety. The hospital also ranked No. 1 in the Deltona-Daytona Beach area by U.S. News & World Report for the third year in a row, along with high-performance ratings in eight specialties.

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 12 million patients since 2001. For more information, visit heart.org.