PIKEVILLE, Ky. — Pikeville Medical Center hosted a luncheon Thursday to recognize its stroke program, administration and stroke team members.

PMC’s Primary Stroke Program has, once again, received the American Heart and Stroke Association Get with the Guidelines – Stroke Gold Plus award.

For the fourth year in a row, the Primary Stroke Program has earned the recognition of Target: Stroke Elite.

“This is the highest level of achievement that can be obtained by a hospital participating with ‘Get with the Guidelines,'” said Quality System Improvement Director with the American Heart Association Cynthia Keeley. “The high quality performance is based off of timeliness of care and meeting those measures each and every day with every patient.”

Keeley presented the award to Stroke Program Director Dr. Naveed Ahmed, along with Pikeville Medical Center’s CEO Donovan Blackburn.

“This particular region, we know the mountainous terrain, topography, geography … and without this type of level of care, you would have to travel hours or have to be flown in order to have any type of care even similar to it,” added Keeley. 

PMC staff members are thrilled with the award.

“We can provide this excellent level of care and we can get the person back to the pre-stoke stage of their life very quickly,” said PMC Emergency Department Director of Nursing Dale Morton.

The closest hospital to also receive this award is over two hours away.

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