ChristianaCare Earns Multiple Awards for High Quality Care for Stroke and Heart Attack
ChristianaCare has received 11 awards for providing high-quality care in the treatment of stroke and heart disease from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. The recognition demonstrates ChristianaCare’s commitment to following up-to-date, research-based guidelines, ultimately leading to more lives saved, shorter recovery times and fewer readmissions to the hospital.
Every 40 seconds, someone in the U.S. has a stroke or heart attack, and heart disease and stroke are the No. 1 and No. 5 causes of death in the United States, respectively. Studies show patients can recover better when providers consistently follow treatment guidelines.
ChristianaCare’s three hospitals (Christiana Hospital and Wilmington Hospital in New Castle County, Delaware, and Union Hospital in Cecil County, Maryland) earned the prestigious awards.
Speeding care for stroke treatments
“Knowing every second counts when a person is suffering a stroke, our exceptional teams at Christiana and Wilmington hospitals provide the highest-quality stroke care through their quick emergency responses, administration of life-saving clot busting drugs and advanced surgeries,” said Kim Gannon, M.D., Ph.D., medical director of ChristianaCare’s Comprehensive Stroke Program.
“Our team coordinates with primary care for management of risk factors including hypertension and diabetes, and other conditions that can increase risk of a stroke. Together we are saving lives and building healthier communities,” she said.
“I am incredibly proud of our entire team that led to these outstanding accomplishments, but more importantly for the exceptional care they provide to our patients every day.”
Exceptional care for heart attack and heart failure
“We are honored to receive these awards and this national recognition, placing our heart program among the very best,” said Kirk Garratt, M.D., medical director of ChristianaCare’s Center for Heart & Vascular Health.
“This recognition is a testament to the dedication and excellence of our cardiologists, surgeons, nurses, technicians and the entire heart and vascular team at ChristianaCare. There is no reason for anyone in our community to go elsewhere for their heart care.”
“The real winner of our heart failure award is our patients – following these guidelines really does make a big difference in how well people cope with heart failure,” said Sourin Banerji, M.D., medical director of the ChristianaCare Heart Failure Program.
“We’re really proud of the heart failure award because it reflects the hard work of so many members of our first-rate team.”
Christiana and Wilmington hospitals earned the following achievements for stroke:
- AHA Get With the Guidelines Stroke Gold Plus
- AHA Get With the Guidelines Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus
- AHA Get With the Guidelines Advanced Therapy
- AHA Get With the Guidelines Target: Diabetes Honor Roll
ChristianaCare-Union Hospital earned the following achievements for stroke:
- AHA Get With the Guidelines Stroke Gold Plus
- AHA Get With the Guidelines Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus
- AHA Get With the Guidelines Target: Diabetes Honor Roll
ChristianaCare earned the following achievements for heart care:
- AHA Mission: Lifeline STEMI Receiving Gold Plus
- AHA Mission: Lifeline NSTEMI Gold Plus
- AHA Mission: Lifeline Heart Failure Gold Plus
- AHA Mission: Lifeline Target Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll
The ChristianaCare Stroke Program serves Christiana Hospital, Wilmington Hospital, Union Hospital and the freestanding Middletown Emergency Department. All three Delaware facilities have received certification from The Joint Commission, a national certifying organization. Christiana Hospital has been recognized as a Comprehensive Stroke Center, the most advanced level of expertise in stroke care.
Wilmington Hospital has been awarded as a Primary Stroke Center and Middletown Emergency Department has been awarded as an Acute Stroke Ready Hospital.
Union Hospital has been certified by the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems as a Primary Stroke Center.
The Center for Heart & Vascular Health is among the most capable regional heart centers on the East Coast. It is the only center in the region that integrates cardiac surgery, vascular surgery, vascular Interventional radiology, cardiology and interventional nephrology in a single location. Each year, our expert cardiac surgery team performs almost 600 open-heart surgeries.
