Rockford Memorial Hospital was recently designated an “Advanced Primary Stroke Center” by The Joint Commission. The Joint Commission is an independent, not-for-profit organization that certifies 15,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States.
According to the Joint Commission, “Certification is the best signal to the community that the quality (a hospital) provides is effectively managed to meet the unique and specialized needs of stroke patients.”
Each year, about 700,000 people experience a new or recurrent stroke, which is the nation’s leading cause of death. On average, someone suffers a stroke every 45 seconds and someone dies of a stroke every 3.1 minutes. Stroke is a leading cause of serious, long-term disability in the United States, with 4.7 million stroke survivors alive today.