Kaweah Delta To Receive National Stroke Quality Achievement Award On July 12

VISALIA – Kaweah Delta Medical Center will be presented with the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines® - Stroke Silver Quality Achievement Award on Tuesday, July 12, in Visalia.

A representative from the American Heart Association will present the award to Kaweah Delta at 2 p.m. in the Blue Room (basement) of Kaweah Delta Medical Center, 400 W. Mineral King Ave.

“We have made a commitment to this community to provide excellent stroke care. Being honored for our work to this point is a great accomplishment, and we will continue doing everything we can to improve further,” said Dr. Edward Hirsch, Kaweah Delta’s Chief Medical and Quality Officer.

Stroke patients such as William Wynne, of Lemoore, are grateful for the care they received at Kaweah Delta. “I probably wouldn’t be alive right now if it weren’t for everyone who cared for me,” Wynne said.

Wynne and his wife Lois were on a drive to Sequoia National Park on Jan. 24, 2016, when suddenly their trip turned into a high-speed ambulance ride. The couple had stopped at a restaurant outside the gate, but William’s first bite of food dribbled down his chin. He couldn’t talk or move his right arm. A nurse in the restaurant advised, “Call 911.” “The care I received was beyond superlative,” Wynne said.

In 2015, Kaweah Delta established a stroke team to improve care for stroke patients with a goal of becoming a primary stroke center through Joint Commission accreditation by 2017. Kaweah Delta earned silver by ensuring that patients with the stroke diagnosis and/or a transient ischemic attack (TIA), “mini strokes,” receive treatment that meets nationally accepted, evidence-based standards and recommendations set by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.

On average, Kaweah Delta sees approximately 360-400 stroke patients and 150 TIA patients each year. Additionally, Kaweah Delta met the majority of the American Heart Association’s stroke achievement and quality measures for the past 12 months. Measures include the amount of time it takes to provide stroke patients with clot busting medications if indicated and whether stroke patients are given smoking cessation advice, among others, said Cheryl Smit, Kaweah Delta’s Stroke Program Manager.