The American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines® – Stroke Rural Recognition Gold and Silver awards recognize efforts to address the unique health needs of rural communities
July 22, 2025 – Danville, Kentucky – People who live in rural communities live an average of three years fewer than urban counterparts and have a 40% higher likelihood of developing heart disease and face a 30% increased risk for stroke mortality – a gap that has grown over the past two decades. Ephraim McDowell Health’s three hospitals are committed to changing that.
For efforts to optimize stroke care and eliminate rural health care outcome disparities, Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center has received the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines® – Stroke Rural Recognition Gold award. Ephraim McDowell Fort Logan Hospital and Ephraim McDowell James B. Haggin Hospital have received the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines® – Stroke Rural Recognition Silver award.
The American Heart Association, the world’s leading nonprofit organization focused on heart and brain health for all, recognizes the importance of health care services provided to people living in rural areas by rural hospitals that play a vital role in initiation of timely evidence-based care. For that reason, all rural hospitals participating in Get With The Guidelines – Stroke are eligible to receive award recognition based on a unique methodology focused on early acute stroke performance metrics.
“We are proud that our teams at Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center, Fort Logan Hospital and James B. Haggin Hospital are being recognized for the important work they do every day to improve the lives of people in our service area who are affected by stroke, giving them the best possible chance of recovery and survival,” said Dan McKay, president and CEO, Ephraim McDowell Health. “As hospitals in rural communities, our teams deal with characteristics, such as extended inter-facility transportation times, and limited staffing resources. We’ve made it a goal to make sure those hurdles do not affect the standard of care our stroke patients receive. Rural communities deserve high quality stroke care. I’m proud of our teams for their commitment to stroke care excellence and this achievement.”
The awards recognize hospitals for their efforts toward acute stroke care excellence demonstrated by composite score compliance to guideline-directed care for intravenous thrombolytic therapy, timely hospital inter-facility transfer, dysphagia screening, symptom timeline and deficit assessment documentation, emergency medical services communication, brain imaging and stroke expert consultation.
“Patients and health care professionals in Ephraim McDowell Health’s service area face unique health care challenges and opportunities,” said Karen E. Joynt Maddox, M.D., MPH, co-author on the American Heart Association’s presidential advisory on rural health. “Ephraim McDowell Health’s three hospitals have furthered this important work to improve care for all Americans, regardless of where they live.
Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center also received the American Heart Association’s Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite with Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll. To qualify for this recognition, hospitals must meet specific criteria that reduce the time between an eligible patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with thrombolytic therapy. Target: Type 2 Diabetes aims to ensure patients with Type 2 diabetes, who might be at higher risk for complications, receive the most up-to-date, evidence-based care when hospitalized due to stroke.