Wadley Recognized for Excellence in Stroke Care

Wadley Regional Medical Center was one of only three Primary Stroke Centers in the state of Arkansas and Texarkana to receive the Arkansas Department of Health Coverdell Defect-Free Care award for providing quality stroke care. Joining Mercy Hospital in Ft. Smith and Northwest Medical Center in Springdale, Wadley is recognized based on data from the Arkansas Stroke Registry using the GWTG (Get with the Guidelines)-Stroke Patient Management Tool for the July 2021 – June 2022 program year. 

“Providing efficient, appropriate care to all stroke patients affords them the best outcome possible. This effort has built our exemplary reputation as Texarkana’s first designated Primary Stroke Center,” says Dr. Khalid Malik, medical director of the Wadley Stroke program. “It reflects Wadley’s commitment to excellent stroke care that we are the only hospital in Texarkana with the ability to provide 24/7 CT perfusion and MRI in an acute stroke setting. This enables us to more accurately diagnose strokes which cannot be picked up by non-contrast CT offered by other hospitals in the area.” 

Achieving this recognition takes a team approach. Beginning with our EMS partners in the field to our ER, Radiology staff and critical care, the Wadley team is proud of being the only hospital in Texarkana to be recognized for this outstanding stroke care. “The Wadley Stroke Team has devoted themselves to achieve these high standards of care and to sustain that level of excellence every year since first being recognized over a decade ago,” proudly says Dr. Malik. 

Recognized at the Pearl level for 85% - 89.99% adherence of the “CDC/COV Defect-Free” measure in GWTG for the CDC measures: (1) IV Thrombolytic Arrive by 2 Hour, Treat by 3 Hour (2) Early Antithrombotics (3) VTE Prophylaxis (4) Antithrombotics (5) Anticoagulation Therapy for Atrial Fibrillation/Flutter (6) Smoking Cessation Counseling; (7) Dysphagia Screening (8) Stroke Education (9) Rehabilitation Considered and (10) Statin Prescribed at Discharge. These measures are benchmarked according to the standards of evidence-based stroke care guidelines to ensure stroke patients receive appropriate and timely care. To be eligible for an award, a hospital must be stroke designated either through ADH or other accrediting body.

They are given to hospitals for providing defect-free stroke care. Defect-free care is an aggregated metric based on the ten American Heart Association/American Stroke Association (AHA/ASA) Coverdell performance measures in the Get with the Guidelines®-Stroke Patient Management Tool. These measures are benchmarked according to the standards of evidence-based stroke care guidelines to ensure stroke patients receive appropriate and timely care.