St. Luke’s Wins National Awards for Stroke Treatment
St. Luke’s Wins National Awards for Stroke Treatment
St. Luke’s University Health Network has received top honors from the American Heart Association
and the American Stroke Association.
The network has received the associations’ Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Gold Plus Quality
Achievement Award with Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus. This recognizes a provider’s
commitment to giving the most appropriate stroke treatment according to nationally recognized,
research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.
“The American Heart Association and American Stroke Association recognize St. Luke’s for its
commitment to stroke care,” said Dr. Paul Heidenreich, national chairman of the Get With The
Guidelines Steering Committee and Professor of Medicine at Stanford University. “Research has
shown there are benefits to patients who are treated at hospitals that have adopted the Get With
The Guidelines program.”
St. Luke’s hospitals were honored individually as follows:
Allentown and Bethlehem Campuses- Get With The Guidelines - Stroke Gold
Plus Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus- first time receiving Target: Stroke
Honor Roll Elite Plus Award
Gold Plus Recognition: “Hospitals receiving Get With
The Guidelines Gold Plus Achievement Award have reached an aggressive goal of treating stroke
patients with 85 percent or higher compliance to core standard levels of care as outlined by the
American Heart Association/American Stroke Association for 24 consecutive months. In addition,
those hospitals have demonstrated 75 percent compliance to seven out of ten stroke quality
measures during the 12-month period.”
Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus: “Hospitals
achieving Time to Intravenous Thrombolytic Therapy ?60 minutes in 75 percent or more of
applicable acute ischemic stroke patients treated with IV tPA AND door-to-needle time Time to
Intravenous Thrombolytic Therapy within 45 minutes in 50 percent of applicable acute ischemic
stroke patients treated with IV tPA to improve quality of patient care and outcomes.”
Miners Campus- Get With The Guidelines - Stroke Gold Plus Target: Stroke
Honor Roll – first time receiving gold and Target: Stroke Honor Roll
Target: Stroke Honor Roll: “Hospitals achieving Time
to Intravenous Thrombolytic Therapy ?60 minutes in 50 percent or more of applicable acute
ischemic stroke patients to improve quality of patient care and outcomes.”
Warren Campus- Get With The Guidelines - Stroke Gold Plus –
first time receiving Gold Plus Award
Anderson Campus- Get With The Guidelines - Stroke Silver Plus Target:
Stroke Honor Roll – first time receiving Silver and Target: Stroke Honor Roll
Silver Plus Recognition: “Hospitals receiving Get
With The Guidelines Silver Plus Achievement Award have reached an aggressive goal of treating
stroke patients with 85 percent or higher compliance to core standard levels of care as outlined
by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association for 12 consecutive months. In
addition, those hospitals have demonstrated 75 percent compliance to seven out of ten stroke
quality measures during the 12-month period.”
Quakertown Campus- Get With The Guidelines - Stroke Silver Plus Quality
Achievement award – first time receiving Silver Plus Award
According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the No. 5
cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the United States. On average, someone
in the U.S. suffers a stroke every 40 seconds, someone dies of a stroke every four minutes, and
nearly 800,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.
A stroke patient loses 1.9 million neurons each minute stroke treatment is delayed. This
recognition further demonstrates St. Luke’s commitment to delivering advanced stroke treatments
to patients quickly and safely.
Get With The Guidelines puts the expertise of the American Heart Association and American Stroke
Association to work for hospitals nationwide, helping hospital care teams ensure the care
provided to patients is aligned with the latest research-based guidelines. Developed with the
goal to save lives and improve recovery time, Get With The Guidelines has impacted more than 3
million patients since 2003.
Media Contact
Sam Kennedy, Corporate Communications Director, 484-526-4134,
samuel.kennedy@sluhn.org
About St. Luke’s
Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a
non-profit, regional, fully integrated and nationally recognized network providing services at
seven hospitals and more than 270 outpatient sites. The network’s service area includes Lehigh,
Northampton, Carbon, Schuylkill, Bucks, Montgomery, Berks and Monroe counties in Pennsylvania
and in Warren County in New Jersey. Dedicated to advancing health education, St. Luke’s operates
the nation’s oldest School of Nursing and 22 graduate medical educational programs and is
considered a major teaching hospital, the only one in the region. In partnership with Temple
University, St. Luke’s created the region’s first Medical School. Repeatedly, including 2017,
St. Luke’s has earned Truven’s 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation as well as 50 Top
Cardiovascular program in addition to other honors for clinical excellence. St. Luke’s is a
multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of St. Luke’s information
technology applications such as electronic medical records, telehealth, online scheduling and
pricing information. St. Luke’s is also recognized as one of the state’s lowest cost providers
in comparison to major teaching hospitals and other health systems.