With stroke the leading cause of adult disability nationwide and South King County a stroke hot spot, it's no wonder Valley's Stroke Center team is fueled by their passion to continue improving care year after year. For the fifth straight year, their accomplishments have earned the national American Heart Association/American Stroke Association recognition, 2020 Get With The Guidelines® - Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award. Participating in the GWTG program to provide optimal stroke care requires staying on top of constantly advancing treatment recommendations, ensuring that patients get up-to-the-minute, scientifically based treatment to help them live longer, healthier lives.

This year Valley's recognition includes two advanced therapy awards—Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite and Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll for comprehensive diabetes follow-up care, as those patients are at higher risk of complications should they face another heart or stroke event.

Kudos to the team for saving brain, reducing disability, advancing care nationally
"Valley has made huge strides in the stroke care we provide our community over the past seven years," says Michael Previti, MD, Stroke Center Medical Director. "This certification reflects that work and dedication by our team. We save brain and decrease disability in South King County every time we quickly identify treatable patients, treat efficiently and effectively, communicate clearly and collaboratively, and educate with patience and empathy. We provide the highest evidence-based acute stroke care and secondary stroke prevention because we are passionate about helping our community. Our thrombectomy-capable certification awarded in February allows us to perform specialized neuro-intervention, involving large vessel clot removal in the brain, vastly improving patient outcomes. Only two other hospitals in the state have this certification, and we should all be very proud that our hard work is translating so directly to good patient outcomes.

"What I am most proud of, however, is our teamwork, and that we make it a priority to treat each other and our patients like our family. The King County first responders, everyone in our emergency room, angiography suite, intensive care unit, stroke unit, transition of care team, stroke clinic, primary care clinics, and everyone in between, have consistently displayed their desire to put patients first in order to significantly improve our care for those that we care for."

Hospitalists are much appreciated as stroke team members not only for the care they provide, but for ensuring stroke patients receive the correct order sets—substantiating that Valley is meeting and exceeding evidence-based standards of stroke care and confirming accurate data is reported to the Joint Commission, AHA/ASA and the Department of Health.

In 2019, Valley administered tPA to 90 patients, at least 85% of applicable patients received tPA within 60 minutes. As of April 2019, 82 patients have received thrombectomy treatment, some in combination with tPA, which allows for even more clot removal and often "miraculous recovery" from potentially permanent paralysis, says Erin Eddington Alden, Stroke Program Manager.

Future care advancements
One of Valley's next leaps in stroke care is underway with the pilot of Pulsara, a burst notification system via team text, calling a team into service for emergency stroke care, similar to a Code Blue or Rapid Response Team alert. If all goes as planned, Pulsara will be adopted in 2021 by first responders out in the field to automatically alert the Valley stroke team, then the software will allow Valley to circle back and notify medics later that day of the patient outcome. The goal is to administer tPA (if appropriate) within 30 minutes and thrombectomy (if applicable) within 90 minutes of arrival to Valley.​​​