WVU Stroke Center on track with goal of becoming Comprehensive Center
The WVU Stroke Center continues to make strides as it transitions to a Comprehensive Stroke Center in spring 2017.
Comprehensive is the highest of three stroke designations certified by the Joint Commission. In October, the Joint Commission evaluated WVU as a Primary Stroke Center – its second-highest designation -- but confirmed that it is in position to earn Comprehensive status soon.
According to WVU Medicine officials, the WVU Stroke Center already functions much like a Comprehensive Center, which is earned by meeting standards for the most complex stroke cases and being prepared 365 days a year to deliver advanced stroke care.
In another step toward that status, three providers – Muhammad Alvi, MD, Ted Katner MD, and Amelia Adcock, MD – recently passed their vascular neurology boards, earning them board certification.
The WVU Stroke Center was honored in 2016 with the two highest awards offered by the American Heart Association/ American Stroke Association: the Gold Plus award for compliance with Joint Commission quality measures, and the Target Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus award for exceptional treatment times for intravenous tPA (the clot-busting medication). The team also received the 2016 WVU Medicine Vice President’s Award for Outstanding Achievement.
Recently, WVU Medicine-WVU Hospitals was ranked sixth among academic medical centers and earned the Vizient 2016 Bernard A. Birnbaum, MD, Quality Leadership Award for superior performance in quality and safety. The efforts of the stroke program played a role in that accomplishment.