Kaleida Health Receives Comprehensive Stroke Center Certification from DNV GL Healthcare |
Updated: 3/28/2014 |
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Kaleida Health announced that it has received certification from DNV GL Healthcare as a Comprehensive Stroke Center, reflecting the highest level of competence for treatment of serious stroke events.
“With stroke care, you must have the best clinicians and resources, but also the ability to act organizationally with extreme efficiency because of the time-critical nature of these events,” says Elad Levy, MD, FACS, FAHA, Professor of Neurosurgery, University at Buffalo Neurosurgery, and Medical Director, Neuroendovascular Services, Gates Vascular Institute. “This certification from DNV GL validates all the effort we have put into this program to ensure the best possible outcomes for our patients.”
For years, Kaleida Health’s Gates Vascular Institute (GVI) has treated more strokes than any other hospital in all of New York State and more than double of any hospital in Western New York. In fact, because of the stroke team’s outcomes, skill, and world-wide reputation, physicians from esteemed medical institutions such as Harvard, Duke, and Cleveland Clinic come to the GVI to learn the latest surgical procedures and interventions for treatment of stroke.
The DNV GL Healthcare Comprehensive Stroke Center Certification is based on standards set by the Brain Attack Coalition and the American Stroke Association, and affirms that the Gates Vascular Institute/Kaleida Health address the full spectrum of stroke care – diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation and education – and establishes clear metrics to evaluate outcomes.
“Achieving certification shows commitment to excellence,” says Robert N. Sawyer, Jr. MD, Associate Professor of Neurology, Vice-Chair of Clinical Affairs, University at Buffalo Neurology and Kaleida Health Corporate Medical Director, Stroke Services. “Certification also helps demonstrate to our community that we are performing at the highest level.”
Comprehensive stroke centers are typically the largest and best-equipped hospitals in a given geographical area that can treat any kind of stroke or stroke complication. In a growing number of states, stroke center certification determines to which facility a patient should be taken for the most appropriate, reimbursable care.
“Each and every person who interacts with a stroke patient; from nursing to admissions, clinical engineering to imaging, security to clinicians, is an integral and irreplaceable part of our stroke team,” said Sawyer. “No single individual is responsible for this certification. It was and will always be a team effort and one we are all extremely proud of.”