It Takes a Team: CarePoint Blue Sky Neurosciences Team Celebrates Third Consecutive Gold Plus Elite Award
CarePoint Blue Sky Neurosciences' Anthony Harrington, MD, is the stroke medical director at Research Medical Center.
For the third year in a row, Research Medical Center (Kansas City, MO) has swept the American Heart Association's (AHA) Get With the Guidelines achievement awards. This recognition reflects sustained, evidence-based care for stroke patients across the hospital.
The stroke program at Research is managed by CarePoint Blue Sky Neurosciences (CPN) clinicians, led by Mohammad Aladawi, MD; Isabella Baldacci, PA; Ken Carroll, NP; Anthony Harrington, MD; Dan Kaplan, DO; Karalee Linz, NP; Ayesha Morris, NP; Ala Saleh, MD; Kazi Syed, MD; Neena Viswanathan, MD; Miranda Wahn, NP; and Melissa Wren, NP.
High-quality stroke care is made possible by an entire coordinated system of neurologists, neurosurgeons, interventionalists, emergency clinicians, the interventional radiology team, and the nursing leaders and unit staff.
Stroke care runs on minutes, not hours. In the U.S., someone has a stroke roughly every 40 seconds, and it remains the nation's fifth-leading cause of death. Patients recover better when hospitals consistently follow evidence-based treatment guidelines. That consistency is exactly what the Get With The Guidelines program measures, and it's exactly what the CPN team has delivered at the highest level for three years running.
Research received AHA's 2026 Get With The Guidelines-Stroke recognition, achieving Gold Plus status along with several elite-tier distinctions:
- Gold Plus: Awarded to hospitals that sustain 85% or higher compliance with core stroke quality measures for two or more consecutive calendar years, along with an additional set of quality measures over that same period.
- Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus: Given to hospitals treating 75% or more of eligible stroke patients with clot-busting medication within 45 minutes of arrival, and 50% or more within 30 minutes.
- Advanced Therapy: Recognizes hospitals that perform clot-removal procedures within 90 minutes for patients arriving directly, and within 60 minutes for patients transferred from another facility, in at least 50% of applicable cases.
- Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll: Awarded to Silver-level-or-higher hospitals that maintain an Overall Diabetes Cardiovascular Initiative Composite Score of 80% or higher.
The hospital consistently tracks and reports data to continue to improve its work, gather data about strokes, and save lives.
"I could not be more proud of the incredibly talented people I am privileged to work with every day," said Jana Braklow, Research's director of neurosciences and oncology. "This shows that by lifting each other up, following guidelines, and working with one another, Research Medical Center has created a greater excellence of care."
