Gold Again: GVH Earns National Stroke Care Honor for the Second Consecutive Year

Gunnison Valley Health has once again received the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines Rural Stroke Recognition Gold Award. To earn Gold, GVH had to meet the program’s rigorous standards for at least 3 years in a row. In 2023 we earned Bronze, then jumped up to Silver in 2024. Last year was our first year earning Gold, making 2026 our second consecutive year in a row with the Gold standard.

The achievement is a testament to the consistent work happening inside GVH’s walls every day. Our nurses, physicians, paramedics, radiologists, and lab staff continue to operate in precise coordination when a stroke patient arrives at our Emergency Department, because in stroke care, every minute counts.

Why This Award Exists

Rural communities face a stark health disparity when it comes to stroke. Rural residents experience higher rates of stroke mortality on average. Distance from major medical centers, limited resources, and gaps in care access all contribute to weaker outcomes.

To directly address this, the American Heart Association launched the Get With The Guidelines Stroke Rural Recognition program in the summer of 2022. The program is designed to support smaller, under-resourced hospitals, encourage evidence-based care, and help close the gap in health outcomes by recognizing facilities that consistently deliver guideline-directed stroke treatment, regardless of their size or location.

What the Gold Standard Requires

To earn and maintain Gold status, GVH must demonstrate at least 75% compliance across a set of strict performance benchmarks, quarter after quarter. These include:

• Rapid diagnosis and treatment: CT scans within 25 minutes of arrival, clot-busting medication administered within 60 minutes, and swift transfers to higher-level stroke centers when needed
• Accurate documentation: recording the "last known well" time to guide treatment decisions
• Safety measures: dysphagia screenings, stroke severity scoring, and EMS pre-notification

Sustained excellence over time is the standard, not a single strong performance.

To achieve these standards, takes the whole emergency team plus collaboration between several other departments such as Radiology and Laboratory. The real driver behind this achievement though is GVH's Clinical Resource Nurse and Stroke Coordinator, Chris Evans. 

"Chris's attention to detail, her drive for perfection and her teamwork, is what truly made GVH's Gold Stroke Standard Achievement possible," said Ashley Curry, Emergency Department Manager. "She has put in numerous hours and brain power to help get us to where we are today." 

Outperforming the National Average

Chris Evan's leg work is what made the achievement possible but the entire GVH staff is what keeps it going. GVH does not just meet the benchmarks, it exceeds them, outperforming other critical access hospitals across the country in key quality measures.

GVH vs. Critical Access Hospital National Averages

• Clot-busting medication within 60 minutes of arrival
  • National CAH average: 69.8% GVH: 100%
• Brain imaging within 25 minutes of arrival
  • National CAH average: 73.7% GVH: 85.7%

Those numbers represent real patients receiving faster, more effective care when they need it most.

Help Save a Life: Know the Signs of Stroke

Use the BE-FAST acronym to recognize stroke symptoms and act quickly. Time lost is brain lost.

B – Balance: Watch for sudden loss of balance, dizziness, or coordination

E – Eyes: Check for sudden vision changes, blurred or double vision, or loss of vision in one or both eyes

F – Face: Ask the person to smile. If one side droops or is numb, it may be a stroke

A – Arms: Ask the person to raise both arms. If one drifts downward, it could indicate weakness

S – Speech: Listen for slurred speech or difficulty speaking

T – Time to call 911: If you see any of these signs, call 911 immediately. Fast treatment saves lives and reduces disability