American Heart Association awards Silver Cross Hospital’s stroke program

The American Heart Association and American Stroke Association both recognized the stroke program at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox.

Silver Cross recently received three awards for its “commitment to providing high-quality stroke and diabetes care,” according to a news release from Silver Cross.

The awards are:

• AHA’s Get With The Guidelines – Stroke Silver Plus award for ensuring “all stroke patients have access to best practices and lifesaving care.”

• Target: StrokeSM Honor Roll award for “meeting specific criteria that reduce the time between an eligible patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with thrombolytic therapy.”

• Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll award for ensuring patients with Type 2 diabetes “receive the most up-to-date, evidence-based care when hospitalized due to stroke.”

Genevieve Shimkus, a registered nurse and the Silver Cross stroke program coordinator, said in the release that Silver Cross also is among the 2,600 stroke hospitals involved with the AHA’s Get With The Guidelines program, which helps improve patient care.

In addition, Silver Cross’ partnership with the University of Chicago Medicine “has drastically reduced the time stroke patients enter the emergency department and are administered the clot-dissolving drug TNK, leading to fewer instances of permanent disability,” Shimkus said in the release.

For more information, visit silvercross.org.