  Dr. Ahmed |
PMC, a Gold Plus level recipient, was featured in the August issue of US News & World Report's "America's Best Hospitals."
PMC also made the Target: Stroke Honor Roll for ensuring at least 50 percent of eligible stroke patients get prompt treatment to restore blood flow to the brain within 60 minutes of arriving at the hospital - critical to limiting stroke damage.
Get With The Guidelines is a hospital-based, quality improvement program created to ensure hospitals consistently care for heart and stroke patients using the most up-to-date guidelines and recommendations.
"We are pleased to recognize the top hospitals that received Get With The Guidelines awards for stroke care," said Deepak L. Bhatt, M.D., M.P.H., national chairman of the Get With The Guidelines steering committee and Chief of Cardiology at VA Boston Healthcare System, Senior Physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "Published scientific studies are providing us with more and more evidence that Get With The Guidelines works. Patients are getting the right care they need when they need it. That's resulting in increased survival."
Dr. Naveed Ahmed, PMC Chief of Staff and Stroke Program Medical Director, said, "It is truly an honor for Pikeville Medical Center to be recognized as a Stroke Gold Plus recipient. This esteemed status would not have been possible without the great vision of President and CEO Walter E. May, the support of the hospital's administrative team, and the dedication of PMC's stroke team, including: Neurologist Dr. Sujata Gutti, the Neurosurgery team, local EMS providers and the physicians and staff of the Emergency Department,Critical Care and Primary Stroke Center."
Stroke patients who seek treatment at hospitals recognized by Get With the Guidelines are started on aggressive therapies and medications that can help improve their care and outcomes.
Hospitals must follow measures determined by the stroke quality improvement program at a certain level and for a designated period of time to be eligible for the achievement awards.
Stroke is the number four killer and a leading cause of long-term disability in the United States.
About 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year - one every 40 seconds.