Raulerson Hospital upgrades to Silver Award for efforts to improve rural stroke care

Okeechobee, FL — People who live in rural communities live an average of three years fewer than urban counterparts and have a 40 percent higher likelihood of developing heart disease and face a 30 percent increased risk for stroke mortality — a gap that has grown over the past two decades. HCA Florida Raulerson Hospital is committed to changing that.

For efforts to optimize stroke care and eliminate rural health care outcome disparities, HCA Florida Raulerson Hospital has received the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines^® - Stroke Rural Recognition Silver award, an increase from the prior year’s Bronze award.

The American Heart Association, the world’s leading nonprofit organization focused on heart and brain health for all, recognizes the importance of health care services provided to people living in rural areas by rural hospitals that play a vital role in initiation of timely evidence-based care. For that reason, all rural hospitals participating in Get With The Guidelines - Stroke are eligible to receive award recognition based on a unique methodology focused on early acute stroke performance metrics.

“We are proud that our team at HCA Florida Raulerson Hospital is being recognized for the important work we do every day to improve the lives of people in Okeechobee who are affected by stroke,” said Brian Melear, chief executive officer, “our team’s commitment to stroke care excellence gives our patients the best possible chance of recovery and survival.”

The award recognizes hospitals for their efforts toward acute stroke care excellence demonstrated by composite score compliance to guideline-directed care for intravenous thrombolytic therapy, timely hospital inter-facility transfer, dysphagia screening, symptom timeline and deficit assessment documentation, emergency medical services communication, brain imaging and stroke expert consultation.

“Patients and health care professionals in Okeechobee face unique health care challenges and opportunities,” said Karen E. Joynt Maddox, M.D., MPH, volunteer expert for the American Heart Association, co-author on “Call to Action: Rural Health: A Presidential Advisory From the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association” and co-director of the Center for Health Economics and Policy at the Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. “HCA Florida Raulerson Hospital has furthered this important work to improve care for all Americans, regardless of where they live.”