San Ramon Regional Medical Center has received the Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold-Plus Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association for the treatment of stroke patients.

Get With The Guidelines Stroke helps hospital teams provide the most up-to-date, research-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. San Ramon Regional Medical Center earned the award 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 aggressive use of medications and risk-reduction therapies aimed at reducing death and disability and improving the lives of stroke patients.

San Ramon Regional Medical Center received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award for 2020. The award recognizes 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. San Ramon Regional Medical Center also qualified for recognition on the Target: Stroke Elite Honor Roll.

The things that matter during a stroke? Time and experience.

Stroke is a medical emergency caused by the decrease of blood to a part of the brain. There are two types of strokes. The first and most common is an ischemic stroke caused by a blood clot or a narrowing of an artery that has cut off blood supply.

The second is hemorrhagic stroke, caused by bleeding in or around the brain. This type only accounts for about 13 percent of all strokes and may be characterized by extremely severe headaches.

Seeking immediate treatment of a stroke is essential.

Early treatment may greatly decrease the risk of long‐term disability. For every minute a stroke goes untreated, as many as 1.9 million brain cells are lost.

Long gone are the days when there was not much to be done for stroke victims. There have been amazing advances in medicine and hospital processes to treat stroke patients, but nationally, less than 5% of patients get to the hospital in time to receive treatment. A stroke resolves in about eight hours, and a patient must come into the hospital within three hours of stroke symptom onset to receive acute treatment.

We know that many risk factors for stroke are modifiable – you can do something today to reduce your risk for stroke!!
Risk factors included:

• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Heart disease
• Diabetes
• Smoking
• Heavy alcohol use
• Physical inactivity
• Obesity
• Atrial fibrillation