Glendale Adventist Medical Center received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award with Target: StrokeSM Honor Roll Elite. The award recognizes the hospital’s commitment to providing the most appropriate stroke treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.

Hospitals must achieve 85% or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke achievement indicators for two or more consecutive 12-month periods and achieve 75% or higher compliance with five of eight Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality measures to receive the Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award.

To qualify for the Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite, 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. If given intravenously 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. GAMC earned the award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients at a set level for a designated period.

These quality measures are designed to help hospital teams follow the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients.

In 2008, GAMC became the first Certified Advanced Primary Stroke Center in the San Fernando Valley as well as the first non-university center in Los Angeles County. The hospital is specially equipped to treat stroke patients quickly. GAMC’s teams of stroke specialists cover all aspects of a stroke, from the initial diagnosis to treatment to rehabilitation and recovery. Doctors and nurses have gone through specific and rigorous training in the diagnosis and treatment of stroke. In November 2009, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors announced that ambulances with suspected stroke patients are required to go to facilities certified as a primary stroke center, like Glendale Adventist Medical Center, with a specialized stroke neurologist/team available on-call at all times. For more information visit AdventistHealth.org/Glendale/Neuro.