Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, Camden, has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold-Plus Quality Achievement Award.

Lourdes earned the award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients. These measures include aggressive use of medications and risk-reduction therapies aimed at reducing death and disability and improving the lives of stroke patients.

Lourdes also received the association’s Stroke Honor Roll for meeting stroke quality measures that reduce the time between hospital arrival and treatment with the clot-buster tPA, the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke. People who suffer a stroke who receive the drug within three hours of the onset of symptoms may recover quicker and are less likely to suffer a severe disability.

“Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center is dedicated to improving the quality of stroke care and The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines Stroke program helps us achieve that goal,” said Dr. Rajat Kumar, M.D., neurologist and medical director of the stroke program at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center. “With this award, Lourdes demonstrates a strong commitment to ensure that our patients receive care based on internationally-respected clinical guidelines.”

 Get With The Guidelines also helps Lourdes’ staff implement prevention measures: educating stroke patients to manage their risk factors, to be aware of warning signs for stroke and ensuring they take their medications properly.