St. Joseph’s, Home of Barrow, Earns National Stroke Quality Award
St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, home to Barrow Neurological Institute, has earned the 2025 Get With The Guidelines® Stroke Gold Plus quality achievement award with Target: Stroke™ Honor Roll Elite and Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll.
The achievement award, given by the American Heart Association, recognizes our commitment to adhering to the latest nationally recognized, evidence-based treatment guidelines for stroke. It also celebrates the hospital’s dedication to providing education so that patients are equipped to manage their health and recovery at home after a stroke.
Stroke is the No. 5 cause of death in the United States and a leading cause of disability. It occurs when a blood vessel in the brain is either blocked by a clot or, less commonly, bursts open. This deprives brain cells of the oxygen-rich blood they need to function and causes those cells to die. Early stroke detection and treatment are key to saving lives, accelerating recovery times, and minimizing long-term deficits.
The Barrow Difference
The hospital qualified for the 2025 Get With The Guidelines® award based on data collected between Jan. 1, 2023 and Dec. 31, 2024. Within that timeframe, the hospital achieved door-to-needle times within 60 minutes for at least 85 percent of eligible patients—earning the Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite status. “Door-to-needle time” describes how long it takes a patient to receive clot-busting medication after arriving at a health care facility. The typical patient loses an estimated 1.9 million neurons each minute a stroke goes untreated.
Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll acknowledges the hospital’s efforts to ensure patients with type 2 diabetes, who might be at higher risk for stroke complications, receive the most up-to-date, evidence-based care when hospitalized due to stroke.
“This national recognition is a testament to the dedication, resilience, and excellence of our multidisciplinary team at St. Joseph’s and Barrow,” said Joyce K. Lee-Iannotti, MD, FAASM, FAAN, a neurologist and the interim director of the Petznick Stroke Center at Barrow.
The Petznick Stroke Center cares for more stroke patients than any other center in the Southwestern United States. It has also met the rigorous standards for designation as a Comprehensive Stroke Center by The Joint Commission, in collaboration with the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association.
“We’re proud to work with the American Heart Association in advancing quality stroke care and public health,” Dr. Lee-Iannotti added. “We thank them for their continued support, and for providing valuable tools and resources that help us continually improve. We look forward to celebrating this achievement and sharing it with our hospital and community.”