Regional Excellence

Fort Sanders Regional Receives Stroke and Cardiac Recognition

Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center has once again received recognition from the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association for providing quality care for patients experiencing stroke or heart events.

The hospital received six quality achievement awards in 2023.

Stroke Care

According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the fifth 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 and nearly 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.

The organization’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke® Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award recognizes Fort Sanders Regional’s commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment based on the latest scientific evidence and guidelines. To qualify for this recognition, hospitals must meet stringent quality measures developed to reduce the time between the patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with thrombolytics, also known as a powerful clot-busting medication.

In receiving the stroke achievement awards, Fort Sanders Regional met specific achievement measures with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. Receiving the association’s Target: Stroke Elite Plus Honor Roll award places the hospital in the top ranks of stroke centers in the United States.

Additionally, Fort Sanders Regional received the association’s Target: Stroke Advanced Therapy Honor Roll award. The recognition is given to hospitals that achieve door-to-device times (arrival to first pass with thrombectomy device) within 90 minutes for direct-arriving patients, and within 60 minutes for transfer patients in 50 percent or more of acute ischemic stroke patients treated with endovascular therapy.

Finally, Fort Sanders Regional again received the Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll award. To qualify for this recognition, hospitals must meet specific quality measures with more than 90 percent compliance for 12 consecutive months for the “Overall Diabetes Cardiovascular Initiative Composite Score.”

Heart Care

The American Heart Association created the Mission: Lifeline® program to support heart attack care following protocols from the most recent evidence-based treatment guidelines. The goal of this initiative is prompt treatment for heart attacks, beginning with calling 911, next with EMS transport and continuing through hospital treatment and discharge.

Fort Sanders Regional received the Mission: Lifeline® Gold Plus Receiving Quality Achievement Award for timely treatment of heart attack patients through emergency procedures to re-establish blood flow to blocked arteries in heart attack patients when needed. In addition, the hospital received the Mission: Lifeline® NSTEMI Gold Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures for the treatment of patients who suffer heart attacks.

These achievements reinforce Fort Sanders Regional’s standing as a Stroke Center of Excellence and the only facility in the region to hold both a Comprehensive Stroke Center certification from The Joint Commission and two separate stroke accreditations from the Commission on the Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities. The designations also support Fort Sanders Regional’s Heart Center’s reputation for comprehensive cardiovascular services and treating patients with some of the most complex cardiac issues in the region.

“We are proud Covenant Health Fort Sanders Regional continues to be recognized by the American Heart and American Stroke Association for outstanding cardiac and stroke care,” Keith Altshuler, president and chief administrative officer, said. “Our highly-skilled teams work diligently to earn this designation year after year in support of their commitment to patient care excellence.”