Sep 18, 2013 3 min read

Allegheny General Hospital has become one of the first medical centers in the country and the first in Western Pennsylvania to be designated as a Comprehensive Stroke Center by the Joint Commission. This new and elite designation was established to recognize the nation’s preeminent and most capable referral centers for the treatment of complex stroke injuries and cerebrovascular disease.

The Joint Commission and the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association established a partnership in 2003 to promote excellent stroke care in hospitals across the United States.

Prior to receiving the highest level of stroke certification, AGH was among more than 1,000 Joint Commission certified Primary Stroke Centers that have an established, formal program to treat stroke patients effectively and consistently with the goal of improving care and outcomes.

Now, with the guidance of the Brain Attack Coalition, The Joint Commission has developed an advanced certification for Comprehensive Stroke Centers; hospitals with specific capabilities to receive and treat the most complicated stroke cases.

“This designation by the Joint Commission reflects our commitment to excellence in medical, surgical, and endovascular care of complex stroke patients with a dedication to quality, improved outcomes and clinical research,” said Dr. Ashis Tayal, director of the AGH stroke center.

The new level of certification recognizes the significant increased resources, staff and training that are necessary for the treatment of complex stroke cases and will assist in the development of integrated delivery networks with Primary Stroke Centers and Acute Stroke Ready hospitals so the most complicated cases can be treated at the centers best equipped to provide specialized care that can lead to better outcomes.

Comprehensive Stroke Centers continue to meet the performance measure requirements for Primary Stroke Centers and will fulfill additional performance and quality Comprehensive Stroke standards, which are in development and will be finalized this year.

“We are extremely proud to have been recognized by the Joint Commission’s as a center of distinction in stroke care,” said Dr. James Valeriano, chairman of the AGH Department of Neurology. “This honor speaks to our ongoing commitment to making AGH one of the top hospitals in the country for treatment of stroke.”

AGH has a long history of progressive stroke care. Under the direction of leading interventional neuroradiologists such as Andrew Ku and neurosurgeon Khaled Aziz, director of the hospital’s Center for Complex Intracranial Disease, AGH employs advanced technologies and procedures to remove blood clots and repair blood vessel injuries in the brain. The AGH team was also among the first in the country to perform intra-arterial t-PA, a delicate procedure in which the blood thinning agent t-PA is administered directly to the site of a blood clot to rapidly dissolve it.

Allegheny General has been designated as a Primary Stroke Center by the Joint Commission since 2006 and opened the region’s first dedicated inpatient stroke unit in 2007. Though still the only facility of its kind in the region, such inpatient programs have been associated with better patient outcomes and are now a Class I recommendation for comprehensive stroke centers by the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association.