Baptist Health Louisville was recently awarded the Target: Stroke Honor Roll – Elite Plus for their efforts in the care of stroke patients. This inaugural award from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association was presented at the International Stroke Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. Baptist Health was one of two hospitals in a four state region to be recognized at the conference.

Baptist Health Louisville’s stroke team is made up of a multidisciplinary team that includes physicians, nurses and hospital staff that initiate treatment for patients suffering from stroke on arrival in the Emergency Department.

Target: Stroke is a national quality improvement initiative of the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. This initiative focuses on improving acute ischemic stroke care by reducing door-to-needle times for eligible patients being treated with tPA. The quality measures focus on reducing the time of thrombolytic therapy for acute ischemic stroke patients. The Elite Plus level is defined as time to thrombolytic therapy within 60 minutes in 75 percent or more of acute ischemic stroke patient treated with IV tPA and door-to-needle time within 45 minutes in 50 percent of acute ischemic stroke patient treated with IV tPA.

What the award recognizes is that patients who present to Baptist Health Louisville with acute stroke are on average treated quicker than at all other hospitals in the western half of the commonwealth and time to treatment is recognized as the single most important therapeutic factor in achieving a good neurological outcome.