St. Francis Medical Center receives award for quality stroke care

The American Heart Association gave special public recognition to St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood for its commitment to providing quality stroke care.

The nonprofit health care provider received the Get with the Guidelines-Stroke award, with a “gold” classification for 24 consecutive months of care.

St. Francis also qualified for the Target: Stroke Honor Roll, reserved for hospitals that meet quality measures that reduce the time between the patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with the clot-buster tissue plasminogen activator or the FDA approved drug tPA.

Melanie Altamirano, MSN, RN, a stroke coordinator nurse practitioner at St. Francis, says the staff is encouraged by the award recognition. “We will continue the hard work and build on this success,” she said.