Integris Baptist Medical Center and Integris Southwest Medical Center earn recognition for efforts to improve stroke treatment

Both Integris Baptist Medical Center and Integris Southwest Medical Center have received the American Heart Association’s GoldPlus Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Quality Achievement Award for their commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, researchbased guidelines.

Integris Baptist Medical Center also received the Association’s Target: StrokeSM Elite award and INTEGRIS Southwest Medical Center the Target: Stroke Honor Roll. To qualify for this recognition, hospitals must meet quality measures developed to reduce the time between the patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with the clotbuster tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke.

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. Early stroke detection and treatment are key to improving survival, minimizing disability and speeding recovery times.