The primary stroke center at Rush University Medical Center received last month the American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines–Stroke (GWTG–Stroke) Gold Performance Achievement Award.

The award recognizes Rush’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of stroke care by ensuring that stroke patients receive treatment for at least 24 months according to nationally accepted standards and recommendations.

“With a stroke, time lost is brain lost.  As health care providers, we strive to meet the highest standards and mobilize treatments as fast as possible for each stroke patient.  This award is validation that we are meeting these high standards,” said Dr. Shyam Prabhakaran, stroke neurologist at Rush.

Rush’s stroke center has already earned the “Gold Seal of Approval” from the Joint Commission’s Primary Stroke Center Certification Program.

Rush has a comprehensive system for rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients admitted to the emergency department. This includes always being equipped to provide brain imaging scans, having neurologists available 24 hours a day to conduct patient evaluations and using clot-busting medications when appropriate.

To receive the GWTG-Stroke Gold Performance Achievement Award, Rush had to demonstrate 85-percent adherence in the GWTG–Stroke key measures for 24 or more consecutive months. These include aggressive use of medications like tPA, antithrombotics, anticoagulation therapy, DVT prophylaxis, and cholesterol-reducing drugs and smoking cessation.

“The American Stroke Association commends the stroke program at Rush for its success in implementing standards of care and protocols,” said Dr. Lee H. Schwamm, national Get With The Guidelines Steering Committee Member and director of the acute stroke services at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “The full implementation of acute care and secondary prevention recommendations and guidelines is a critical step in saving the lives and improving outcomes of stroke patients.”

According to the American Stroke Association, each year approximately 700,000 people suffer a stroke — 500,000 are first attacks and 200,000 are recurrent. Of stroke survivors, 21 percent of men and 24 percent of women die within a year, and for those aged 65 and older, the percentage is even higher.