News
St. Luke’s Monroe Campus has been awarded stroke accreditation from the Joint Commission, a key designation that reflects an organization’s commitment to meeting high performance standards.
“Receiving accreditation as a primary stroke center represents an important milestone, and a seal of quality for the program as a whole,” says Daniel Ackerman, M.D., Director of Stroke and Vascular Neurology at St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN). “At St. Luke’s Monroe Campus, we have developed an excellent program for the evaluation and treatment of stroke and stroke-related illnesses. With neurologic expertise available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Monroe is well equipped to handle neurologic emergencies, and to rapidly evaluate and treat patients who are having a stroke event.”
There are a total of 94 hospitals in Pennsylvania that are certified stroke centers by the Joint Commission. Six of these accredited hospitals are now SLUHN campuses.
To obtain this accreditation, the St. Luke’s Monroe Campus had to demonstrate to the Joint Commission the specific high-quality education of the entire stroke team, and expertise in monitoring and treating stroke patients in certain areas of the hospital.
“We had to equip the hospital with the appropriate capabilities in radiology, 24 hours per day, seven days per week, to ensure that patients will receive any necessary imaging immediately,” Dr. Ackerman explains. “We also had to demonstrate compliance with clinical practice guidelines from the American Stroke Association, and analyze and measure data from our performance across eight joint-commission specified areas and set our own goals for improvement.”
Finally, St. Luke’s Monroe Campus had to demonstrate its commitment to the community by providing public education opportunities and engaging its partners in pre-hospital care, such as emergency medical technicians and paramedics.
Dr. Ackerman notes that, for members of the community, this achievement means that they can arrive at St. Luke's Monroe any time, day or night, and receive the same high-quality care and evaluation.
“At St. Luke’s Monroe Campus, we have the tools and the personnel to quickly and effectively diagnose a stroke and take measures to help ensure the best recovery possible,” he says. “This stroke accreditation is another demonstration of St. Luke’s commitment to service and excellence in our local communities. It signifies that we have been successful in bringing to the local community a center that is able to offer the consistent, fast and high-quality care that our patients have come to expect. It also means that, as an organization, we are on a pathway of continuous examination and improvement to maintain that certification through the years.”
For more information about the St. Luke’s Monroe Campus, and a full list of services and resources available, please visit www.slhn.org/Monroe.
Media Contact:
Sam Kennedy, Corporate Communications Director, 484-526-4134, samuel.kennedy@sluhn.org
About St. Luke’s
Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network providing services at nine hospitals and nearly 300 outpatient sites. With annual net revenue of $1.7 billion, the network’s service area includes 10 counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Carbon, Schuylkill, Bucks, Montgomery, Berks and Monroe counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is a major teaching hospital – the only one in the Greater Lehigh Valley. In partnership with Temple University, St. Luke’s created the region’s first and only regional medical school campus. It also operates the nation’s longest continuously operating School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 23 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 189 residents. Repeatedly, including 2017, St. Luke’s earned Truven’s 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital and 50 Top Cardiovascular Program designations, in addition to other honors for clinical excellence. St. Luke’s, utilizing the EPIC electronic medical record (EMR) system, is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of St. Luke’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information. St. Luke’s is also recognized as one of the state’s lowest cost providers.
