Cherry Hill, NJ, June 14, 2022 -- Jefferson Health’s three New Jersey Hospitals have each received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s (AHA/ASA) Get With The Guidelines^®-Stroke Gold Plus quality achievement award for their commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines.

Jefferson Cherry Hill Hospital, Jefferson Stratford Hospital and Jefferson Washington Township Hospital each earned the Gold Plus award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients. Before hospital discharge, patients should also receive education and have a follow-up visit scheduled, as well as other care transition interventions.

“The Get With The Guidelines-Stroke initiative has improved the quality of care and outcomes for our stroke patients, providing us the most up-to-date, research-based treatment guidelines,” said Cheryl Griffith, MSN, RN, Jefferson (NJ) Stroke Program Director. “Early stroke detection and treatment are key to improving survival, minimizing disability and speeding recovery times.”

Jefferson Cherry Hill Hospital and Jefferson Washington Township Hospital also received the Associations’ Target: Stroke^SM Honor Roll award. To qualify for this recognition, these hospitals met quality measures developed to reduce the time between the patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with the clot-buster tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA — the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke.

Additionally, all three New Jersey Hospitals - Cherry Hill, Stratford and Washington Township – received the Associations’ Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll™ award. To qualify for this recognition, these hospitals met quality measures developed with more than 90% of compliance for 12 consecutive months for the “Overall Diabetes Cardiovascular Initiative Composite Score.”

 According to the AHA/ASA, stroke is the No. 5 cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the U.S. On average, someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke every 40 seconds and nearly 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year. To learn more, visit www.JeffersonHealth.org/NJneuroscience.

About Jefferson Health: Jefferson Health, home of Sidney Kimmel Medical College, is reimagining health care in the greater Philadelphia region and southern New Jersey. Jefferson’s dedicated team of doctors, nurses, health professionals and staff provides a range of primary to highly specialized care through 18 hospitals (10 are Magnet®-designated by the ANCC for nursing excellence), more than 50 outpatient and urgent care locations, the NCI-designated Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, Moss Rehabilitation Hospitals and Magee Rehabilitation and the JeffConnect® telemedicine program. For 2021-2022, Jefferson is ranked among the nation’s best hospitals in seven specialities by U.S. News & World Report. Jefferson Health’s mission is to improve the lives of patients in the communities it is privileged to serve through safe, effective, equitable, compassionate care.