The Stroke Awareness Foundation

	“Getting local hospitals certified to administer the drug t-PA within three hours of a stroke will greatly reduce long-term rehabilitation and increase quality of life in our community.” Gary Allen, President & CEO The Health Trust

	Good Samaritan Hospital “The Stroke Awareness Foundation has been particularly helpful to our staff at Good Samaritan Hospital as we worked to become a Certified Stroke Center.” William K. Piche CEO Good Samaritan Hospital “Since our certification as Primary Stroke Center, we have made consistent and successful efforts to extend the window of treatment beyond three hours. We are now doing intra-arterial t-PA, using new interventional techniques, with modern guide wires and catheters; doing angioplasty and stent placement in very delicate small blood vessels in the brain.” Harmeet Sachdev, MD Stroke Center Director Good Samaritan Hospital Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Santa Clara “High blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, lack of exercise, and being overweight can all contribute to a higher risk of stroke.” Jai Cho, MD Neurologist Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Santa Clara Stanford University Hospital Stroke Center “The Stroke Awareness Foundation has made a spectacular effort to encourage certification of local stroke centers and paramedic diversion of acute stroke patients to appropriate care facilities. This effort will likely have a major impact on public health in our areas.” Gregory W. Albers, MD Director Stanford Stroke Center Kaiser Permanente Santa Teresa Medical Center "In my 20 plus years of working in health care administration, the Stroke Awareness Foundation's advocacy for the establishment of Certified Stroke Centers represents one of the best examples of private citizens influencing health care policy and delivery in ways that immediately benefit individuals and the community at large." Terry L. Austen Sr. Vice President & Area Manager - San Jose Kaiser Permanente - Santa Teresa Medical Center O'Connor Hospital, San Jose El Camino Hospital, Mountain View Santa Clara Valley Medical Center Regional Medical Center
	Santa Cruz County •Dominican
	San Francisco County •CPMC •UCSF • SF General
	Contra Costa County •John Muir Walnut Creek •John Muir Mt. Diablo •KP - Walnut Creek
	San Mateo County •KP Redwood City •Mills Peninsula •Stanford •Seaton Daly City
	Alameda County •Summitt Oakland •Alta-Bates Berkley •Washington Hospital

MAP OF CERTIFIED STROKE CENTERS IN CALIFORNIA
Click on a map marker to view the center's name and address

	The Joint Commission mission is to continuously improve the safety and quality of care provided to the public through the provision of health care accreditation and related services that support performance improvement in health care organizations. Joint Commission accreditation is recognized worldwide as a symbol of quality that reflects an organization's commitment to meeting certain performance standards. To earn and maintain accreditation, an organization must undergo an on-site survey by a Joint Commission survey team at least every three years. In addition, The Joint Commission Certification Program for Disease-Specific Care provides a comprehensive evaluation of disease or conditions-specific services. Joint Commission's certification is based on an assessment of compliance with relevant standards and criteria, the effective use of clinical guidelines and outcomes measurement. While accreditation ensures an organization's overall commitment to quality, certification demonstrates excellence in fostering better outcomes by the integration and coordination of care. Joint Commission's quality review programs for accreditation and certification represent the industry's gold standard in health care. Joint Commission accredits hospitals nationwide and started to certify stroke centers in December, 2003. Joint Commission certification as a Primary Stroke Center requires a hospital to provide a distinct program meeting standards and protocols that include 24-hour availability of advanced technology and medical skills. This designation is based on the acceptance of an extensive application outlining the stroke center program and completing a rigorous 1-day process from a Joint Commission Field Surveyor. Access to healthcare settings that are prepared and trained for stroke recognition and treatment is essential, and most of that access occurs in a hospital emergency department. But optimal stroke treatment requires a dedicated team of Stroke Team Responders 24 hours per day to properly diagnose and begin treatment. This includes registered nurses, physicians and technicians trained in stroke care as well as the technology and commitment to provide care for stroke patients as outlined by national experts. The program must include the ability to identify candidates for and administer t-PA, the first drug approved by the FDA to dissolve blood clots in the brain. A certified stroke center needs to have a stroke team on call 24 hours per day to properly diagnose and begin treatment. This involves the radiology department, vascular imaging department, physicians, pharmacist, respiratory therapy staff, as well as nursing staff. (www.jointcommission.org) Find National Certified Stroke Centers by Name, Zip Code, or State. Then select Type of Service - Certified Programs - Stroke (Primary Stroke Center) Search The Joint Commission Web site here.

	Good Samaritan Hospital was one of the first five hospitals in the United States, and the first in California, to undergo the Joint Commission certification process for stroke care and code brain attack program and was certified effective December, 2003. The Hospital has had an active stroke program since 1997. The new Stroke Care and Code Brain Attack Program is different than previous programs of care in that it is "nurse-driven", meaning that any RN can call a stroke alert and activate a response team. This is a unique quality of the program at Good Samaritan Hospital. Previously the program was on a traditional alert system like "Code Blue". Good Samaritan Hospital has educated the nursing staff that once stroke symptoms are recognized, any nurse can phone the alert for "Code Brain Attack." This can be accomplished ahead of physician notification. The key element is time. The stroke coordinators respond and guide the team to successful treatments. When a stroke patient arrives at the hospital, assessment is foremost in the minds of the staff. When a stroke or "stroke-like" symptoms are identified, the staff sounds the "Code Brain Attack" alert. This starts an entire domino of processes. The staff immediately clears a CT or "cat scan" machine, as this exam is vital to diagnosis and treatment planning. A host of staff responds to the Brain Attack location. This includes patient transport staff, phlebotomists from the laboratory, stroke coordinators, neurologist on call and vascular imaging technicians. Each of these team members plays an essential role in stroke identification, proper treatment plan selection and implementation of that plan. The hospital has treated about 3000 stroke patients to date while employing the latest in technology and science advances. Good Samaritan Hospital has used t-PA to dissolve clots in the brains of more than 80 patients.
	KAISER PERMANENTE MEDICAL CENTER, SANTA CLARA
	Our Santa Clara Medical Center is the first Kaiser Permanente hospital and only the fifth hospital in California to be designated as a Primary Stroke Center, after a rigorous review by the Joint Commission. "For our members who do have a stroke, we offer a wide range of specialties and services devoted to helping maximize their recovery," says Dr. Jai Cho, MD, a Santa Clara neurologist who specializes in the prevention and treatment of strokes. "This includes rapid evaluation of stroke victims in the Emergency Department to find out if they meet the criteria for administering clot-busting drugs." Kaiser Santa Clara has a dedicated stroke unit in the hospital; a staff of more than 90 nurses who are specially trained in stroke care; and a multidisciplinary team of neurologists, hospital-based specialists, physical and occupational therapists, physiatrists (specialists in physical medicine and rehabilitation), and social workers.
	KAISER PERMANENTE SANTA TERESA MEDICAL CENTER, SAN JOSE
	The Kaiser Permanente Santa Teresa Medical Center in San Jose is Joint Commission accredited as a primary stroke center. Joint Commission certification means our program complies with the highest national standards for safety and quality of care. We provide management across the full continuum of stroke care. We have stroke protocols that comply with Joint Commission Stroke Center Certification standards, which include the timely and appropriate delivery of thrombolytic therapy. By following these national standards and guidelines we can significantly improve outcomes for stroke patients. In addition, we provide comprehensive multidisciplinary in-patient care to all acute stroke patients in our Stroke Unit. The care provided includes appropriate evaluation and treatment by dedicated trained professionals in neur9ology, emergency medicine internal medicine, nursing, physical therapy, speech and language therapy, cognitive therapy, social work, cardiology and vascular surgery. We also provide ongoing long-term monitoring and management of vascular and stroke risk factors in patients who have suffered a TIA or stroke, to prevent the incidence of further events. We have a comprehensive PHASE (Preventing Heart Attacks and Stroke Everyday) program that we utilize to help our stroke patients after discharge. As part of our commitment to provide outstanding care to our community as well as our patients, we also participate jointly in a community stroke prevention education program with other Primary Stroke Centers in the South Bay. We use an established database from the American Stroke Association to monitor all of our acute and sub-acute stroke processes and outcomes, to ensure we provide best care to our patients.

	The Stanford Stroke Center, one of the first comprehensive multidisciplinary centers of its kind, was established in 1992 to develop new approaches to diagnose and treat stroke. The Center assembled a team of neurologists, neurosurgeons, neuroradiologists, nurse specialists, basic scientists, and clinical researchers with the goal of significantly improving the chances that a patient can prevent, or recover optimally, from a stroke. The Stanford Stroke Center was certified by Joint Commission effective August, 2004. Stanford is now recognized throughout the world as a leader in stroke research and treatment. The Stanford Stroke Center was recently ranked the No. 1 academic institution in the country for stroke management by the University Health Consortium. In addition, The Center has made the largest number of research contributions to the American Heart Association’s international stroke meeting for each of the last several years. Stanford has pioneered major advances in medical therapies for treating and preventing stroke, neurosurgical techniques for stroke prevention and exciting interventional neuro-radiologic procedures for stroke patients. The Center has provided care for more than 13,000 patients with cerebrovascular disorders. Stanford neuroscientists have helped clarify the basic mechanisms of stroke-induced brain injury and are currently working with several new treatment modalities that offer tremendous promise for the future.