GAINESVILLE - Northeast Georgia Medical Center has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's "Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement" award for the second consecutive year.
The award recognizes stroke care programs that meet high benchmarks regarding quality of care, use of specific medications and the availability of smoking cessation resources. Gold Plus, the highest level of recognition possible, means NGMC excelled at these measures during two or more consecutive 12-month periods.
With stroke treatment, time lost is brain lost, and this award demonstrates our commitment to providing aggressive, proven stroke care, said LaRoy Penix, MD, a neurologist with Northeast Georgia Physicians Group and NGMCs medical director of stroke care. Northeast Georgia Medical Center 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 to conduct patient evaluations and using clot-busting medications when appropriate.
According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is one of the leading causes of death and serious, long-term disability in the United States. On average, someone suffers a stroke every 40 seconds; someone dies of a stroke every four minutes; and 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.
Recent studies show that patients treated in hospitals participating in the American Heart Associations Get With The Guidelines-Stroke program receive a higher quality of care and may experience better outcomes.
We are honored to receive this recognition which shines light on the hard work and dedication of our physicians and clinical staff, says Brad Nurkin, President of NGMC. They focus on further improving the quality of care for our stroke patients every day.
NGMC is also certified by DNV Healthcare as a Primary Stroke Center.
Link: Northeast Georgia Health System
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NGMC recognized for stroke care