EvergreenHealth Stroke Care recently earned the American Stroke Association’s (ASA) Get With The Guidelines – Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award for the fourth consecutive year.

The award recognizes EvergreenHealth for serving as an industry leader in utilizing the most up-to-date evidence-based treatment guidelines to improve care and outcomes for patients who suffer a stroke.

To earn Gold Plus status within the Get With The Guidelines program, EvergreenHealth’s stroke program shows that it meets specific quality measures for at least two consecutive years, and successfully demonstrates its dedication to providing stroke patients the highest quality care.

“Earning the ASA’s highest Quality Achievement Award for a fourth year furthers our position as a leading stroke care program in our community and beyond. It’s tangible evidence of every one of our provider’s hard work and commitment to saving lives,” said EvergreenHealth CEO Bob Malte in a press release. “By ensuring that the care we provide to patients is aligned with the latest research-based guidelines based on scientific evidence, we strive to enhance the well-being of our community with even better patient outcomes.”

In addition to the Quality Achievement Award, EvergreenHealth was again recognized on ASA’s Target: Stroke Elite Plus Honor Roll, an honor given to health systems that meet quality standards for reducing the time between a patient’s arrival at the hospital, and treatment with the clot-buster tPA (tissue plasminogen activator). When tPA is administered to stroke patients within three hours of the onset of stroke symptoms, it can dissolve blood clots and restore blood flow to the brain, increasing the patient’s chance of making a full recovery.

Get With The Guidelines-Stroke is an in-hospital program for improving stroke care by promoting consistent adherence to the latest scientific treatment guidelines, and reports on achievement, quality, reporting and descriptive measures. The ASA recognizes hospitals that achieve at least 85 percent compliance in each of the Get With The Guidelines Achievement Targeted Award Measures, which include proper use of medication and other stroke treatments that speed recovery and reduce the risk of mortality or disability.

In addition to recognizing the Kirkland-based health system’s stroke care program, the ASA honored EvergreenHealth’s sister hospital in Monroe with its latest quality awards.

EvergreenHealth is also designated as a Primary Stroke Center by The Joint Commission, and as part of its commitment to stroke care, the health system is adding capacity with a new catheterization and interventional radiology suite, or cath lab. The suite’s expansion will include the addition of a biplane machine, a state-of-the-art interventional imaging unit that produces detailed 3-D images of vessels and blood flow in real-time.

The biplane’s advanced imaging technology helps providers precisely identify the source of a neurological blockage or malformation in the vessels, and prescribe immediate treatment. Procurement of the biplane was made possible through the support of the EvergreenHealth Foundation, community donors and the proceeds from the 2018 Evergreen Gala.

The expansion of the cath lab joins other important projects included in the organization’s Master Facilities Plan, a 10-year blueprint designed to accommodate the rapid growth and health care needs of the Puget Sound region’s expanding Eastside community. Learn more at www.evergreenhealth.com/future.