Excela Health Hospitals Repeat Top Performers, Receive National Accolades for Quality Stroke Care

GREENSBURG, PA, AUGUST 3, 2020 … Excela Health System is once again among a select group of healthcare organizations nationwide to be recognized for delivering the highest quality in stroke care. The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association (AHA/ASA) has recognized both Excela Westmoreland and Latrobe Hospitals with the Get With The Guidelines®- Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award and Excela Health Frick Hospital with its Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award. These awards recognize the hospital's commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.

Excela Health hospitals earned the awards by meeting specific quality achievement
measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients at a set level for a designated period. These measures include evaluation of the proper use of medications and other stroke treatments aligned with the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients.

“Earning these prestigious designations truly requires a team effort starting with our
partnerships with EMS. It then culminates with the talents and dedication of our doctors, nurses, and support staff in our Emergency Departments, Neurology, Radiology, ICUs, Rehabilitation, and the many other disciplines involved in the coordinated care of a stroke patient” noted John Sphon, Excela Health Chief Executive Officer. “During a stroke, time lost is brain lost. The tools and resources provided as part of the Get With The Guidelines program help us track and measure our success in meeting evidence-based clinical benchmarks developed to improve patient outcomes.”

For nearly 25 years, Excela Health hospitals have been stressing early recognition
and treatment for both heart attack and stroke as part of a community-wide Golden Hour education initiative, which promotes recognition of signs and symptoms of heart attack and stroke and the importance of seeking medical care within the “Golden Hour” window of time when there is the greatest opportunity for a good outcome.

Over that same time period, Excela hospitals have earned various honors from
AHA/ASA for providing patient care based on those guidelines.

Since 2016, Excela Health hospitals have been designated Primary Stroke Centers
by The Joint Commission in collaboration with the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association and recognized by the Pennsylvania Department of Health for exceeding national standards for quality patient care.

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 and nearly 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.

Excela Health, a 578-bed, tertiary-based health System in Westmoreland County, PA, includes three hospitals – Excela Westmoreland Hospital, Excela Latrobe Hospital, and Excela Frick Hospital – and serves more than 23,000 inpatients, 700,000 outpatients, and 100,000 emergency visits annually. With more than 700 physicians and allied health professionals and 4,300 employees, Excela is a regional leader in clinical areas such as Cardiovascular Disease, Orthopedics, and Emergency Medicine.

The System has been recognized by U.S. News & World Report. To learn more, visit www.excelahealth.org.

About Get With The Guidelines®

Get With The Guidelines® is the American Heart Association/American Stroke
Association’s Get With The Guidelines® is the American Heart Association/American
Stroke Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program provides hospitals with tools and resources to increase adherence to the latest research-based guidelines. Developed with the goal of saving lives and hastening recovery, Get With The Guidelines has touched the lives of more than 9 million patients since 2001. For more information, visit heart.org/quality

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