RIDGEWOOD, N.J., April 21 /PRNewswire/ -- The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, N.J., announced today that the hospital’s Stroke Center has become the first and only facility in New Jersey and the New York metropolitan area to be awarded Disease-Specific Care Certification from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). This certification is awarded only to those hospitals that can demonstrate that they meet rigorous standards of care, and serves as a benchmark that enables the public and emergency medical services personnel to recognize those hospitals that are the best-equipped to treat stroke, according to the Joint Commission.
Likening stroke centers to trauma centers, experts recommend that patients seek care at a hospital like Valley, which has the specialists and programs in place to evaluate and treat them quickly.
“Joint Commission Disease-Specific Care Certification assures consumers and purchasers that The Valley Hospital Stroke Center is committed to quality and safety excellence,” says Maureen Connors Potter, executive director, Disease-Specific Care Certification Program, Joint Commission. “It is the Gold Seal of Approval for health care quality and safety.”
Stroke is the nation’s third leading cause of death, affecting about 750,000 Americans each year. On average, someone suffers a stroke every 45 seconds and someone dies of a stroke every 3.1 minutes. Stroke is also a leading cause of serious, long-term disability in the United States, with about 4.7 million stroke survivors alive today.
Stroke occurs when blood supply to the brain is cut off. Most strokes are caused by a clot that has built up on the wall of a brain artery or one that has traveled there from another part of the body. Some strokes are caused by a ruptured blood vessel in or near the brain, which results in bleeding within or over the surface of the brain. Stroke can result in weakness or paralysis of one side of the body, loss of speech or the ability to understand others, memory loss or a combination of these factors. Possible complications include pneumonia or potentially dangerous blood clots in the legs.
The Joint Commission is the accrediting body for hospital and other healthcare organizations and JCAHO accreditation is recognized worldwide as a symbol of quality. The Joint Commission developed the Disease-Specific Care Certification Program for Primary Stroke Care based on the recommendations for primary stroke centers published by the Brain Attack Coalition and the American Stroke Association’s statements/guidelines for stroke care.
The Valley Hospital
CONTACT: Maureen Curran Kleinman, +1-201-291-6310, for The ValleyHospital
Web site: http://www.valleyhealth.com/
