For the fourth consecutive year, Henry Mayo has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award with Target: Stroke Honor Roll.

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.

To receive the award, hospitals must achieve 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines achievement measures for two or more consecutive 12-month periods and 75 percent or higher compliance with five of eight quality measures.

Henry Mayo earned the Stroke Honor Roll award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients at a set level for a designated period. Henry Mayo met 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 4.5 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.

“A stroke patient loses 1.9 million neurons each minute stroke treatment is delayed. This recognition further demonstrates our commitment to delivering advanced stroke treatments to patients quickly and safely,” said Lorisha Rathnam-Clark, Stroke Navigator at Henry Mayo. “Our team continues to strive for excellence in the acute treatment of stroke patients.”

Henry Mayo has also met specific scientific guidelines as a Primary Stroke Center, featuring a comprehensive system for rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients admitted to the emergency department.

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.