Vista East retains its stroke center accreditation

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Dr. Antao Du

Updated: March 23, 2012 8:05AM

WAUKEGAN — Vista Medical Center East has successfully retained its Gold Seal of Approval as a primary stroke center following a thorough survey by The Joint Commission.

The survey was completed in December 2011 with the confirmation letter recently received by Vista. The re-accreditation comes two years after Vista Medical Center East was named as the first hospital in northern Lake County to earn the distinction from The Joint Commission.

An independent, not-for-profit organization, The Joint Commission is the nation’s oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care. It evaluates and accredits more than 15,000 health care organizations and programs in the U.S..

“On behalf of our physicians, nurses and medical staff, we’re very proud that our stroke program continues to earn this distinction from The Joint Commission,” said Barbara Martin, president and CEO of Vista Health System. “Our medical professionals and staff are dedicated to fighting this devastating disease while providing outstanding care to our patients in the community.”

Stroke is the nation’s third leading cause of death with more than 700,000 people experiencing a new or recurrent stroke each year. On average, someone suffers a stroke every 40 seconds, and claims a life every 3.1 minutes.

“We are continuously working to improve and expand our stroke program,” said Julie Gruber, Vista’s neuroscience coordinator. “We look at every step of the process, including the care received in our emergency rooms and throughout the inpatient stay; our surgical and post-operative procedures; and our inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation. The result of this is that accredited programs like ours experience lower mortality rates, plus the short-term and long-term outcomes for patients are statistically proven to be better.”

Gruber pointed out that access to a neurologist is now easier at Vista since the addition of a full-time, employed neurologist, Dr. Antao Du, who sees patients at multiple Vista locations.

Patient education and awareness are important aspects of Vista’s Stroke program. Vista is a local sponsor of a statewide organization called SSEEO (Stroke Survivors Empowering Each Other), and Vista partners with SSEEO member Phyllis Weisz to hold monthly meetings for stroke survivors. Vista also has recently launched a support group for people with Parkinson’s Disease.